The Anthropologist Who Has Spent 50 Years Protecting--and Learning From--Orangutans

[wnylib]

2. I was unaware of this woman and her work

until now. I had seen the film about Dian Fossey, and I have followed Jane Goodall's work ever since I first saw her on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.

Our ape cousins are fascinating to me and I am glad to see people studying and protecting them.

I remember when I mentioned Goodall's work in a biology class on human evolution and the similarity between chimp and human DNA. The male professor ridiculed Goodall as "weird" for spending time in the forests to observe chimps. He actually said that it was no way for a woman to live and work. I responded that it did not stop her from having a personal life since she married and had a son while working on her studies. The professor said that was even worse because it was no way for a woman to raise a child.

Not until later did it occur to me that a good response would have been to ask him how far HE had evolved.