Dr. Jane Goodall discusses need to combat climate change especially now, and why our great apes are also at risk during COVID crisis

Dr. Jane Goodall, who fits the only definition of "living legend" I know, spoke to the National Press Club during a Youtube interview today. She talked at great length with NPC president Michael Freedman regarding her decades-long work including as a ground-breaking primatologist renowned for research on wild chimpanzees in Tanzania. She made headlines in the 1960s, not only for her ability to communicate with chimps but for being a female doing important scientific work. National Geographic, in 1963, published the first cover story on Goodall and her research,“My Life Among the Wild Chimpanzees”, reaching millions on both sides of the Pond.

In "NPC, A Virtual Newsmaker: Jane Goodall", the British scientist, now a vibrant 86, shared that she supports the next generation of women following in her footsteps but hopes everyone will be careful. If one is researching elephants, for example, be mindful that such work can be dangerous. Remember to respect that a wild animal is, after all, wild. She touted, too, what she calls "good zoos" because, in part, their veterinarians and scientists help conservation efforts and they are now staffed by more learned people with a stronger sense of animal welfare.

Asked to reflect on her initial engagement with chimps as a young woman, she laughs: "First they ran away from me for over two months and I despaired ...it was very depressing. To them I am a very peculiar white ape and walk in an odd way, my body is covered with bits of stuff, I am not very agile and can't climb in trees. But at the same time chimps are very conservative, they do not like new things, so they ran away."

She was not yet college educated but chosen for the work in part, she says, because she was deemed to be more patient by virtue of her sex. In her work that began in the early 60s, after observing a chimp use a twig as a tool, she was the first person to challenge that humans were the only animals capable of using tools.

Freedman allowed several journalists to send in questions including mine. I asked, "Dr. Goodall: What are the primary species at risk during the Covid-19 pandemic? For example, gorillas, orangutans, chimpanzees...And how does this risk manifest itself?"

She answered that, "Well, the thing is that these great apes are all susceptible to coronaviruses like the influenza, for example, and theoretically they could be infected with Covid-19. In fact, almost certainly they would be. And if that happens, and if it is as devastating as it might be, then it is bad news indeed. So far, touch wood, fingers crossed, the Covid-19 as far as we know has not affected any wild ape populations in Asia or Africa. But it could - so we take enormous precautions, testing anybody who comes into Gombe (Stream National Park, home of her research in Tanzania)."

But it's tough because there are villages all around Gombe and they can't test everybody, she says, and "baboons also might be susceptible to Covid-19 - they move out into the villages, so do vervet monkeys, they move back into the park." She says they can't really control it, but they just do the best they can and "hope and pray."

The delightful Dr. Goodall has felt stymied during the pandemic as she has had to give up her worldwide travel, being replaced by a "virtual Jane" administered by her staff at the Jane Goodall Institute. She is very happy, though, to be able to keep promoting her messages of animal welfare and protecting the planet. She is adamant that every one of us needs to make positive choices each day, such as reducing our meat intake. She bemoans the overcrowded animal factories for their inhumanity to man as well as the offshoot effects on climate, i.e. cow flatulence, which is methane and therefore injurious to the planet.

Do watch the BBC documentary, "She Walks With Apes", which I reviewed some time ago. And too hear the entire one-hour interview with Goodall, please click here. Read more about her foundation here.

Photo: By William Waterway - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18457291.

(Dr Goodall discussed during today's NPC chat that she long loved dogs, including one she had as a teen and whose picture graces her bookshelf today. Note, the Institute in Tanzania is currently closed but is continuing to do its work virtually. Goodall shared that there are more than 20 satellite offices for the institute worldwide including in the States.) Watch the Newsmaker on Youtube here.