Photo Credit: Kaldari, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0
Every single day we live, each one of us makes an impact on the planet. And we have a choice as to what kind of impact we make. ~ Jane Goodall
This week, we – you, me, the animal world, and the planet – lost a good friend and nurturer, Jane Goodall. I’ve been watching videos and listening to podcast interviews with her this week, and she has a few consistent messages that I wanted to share.
- She led by example. When she went to the Gombe Stream in Tanzania in 1962, she had only a ton of patience and a passion for studying animals in the wild.
- Jane was open-minded. And that led to discoveries that chimps use tools, which had previously been thought to be what set humans apart from other animals. And not only that, but she also observed chimps making tools.
- She acknowledged each chimp’s personality and emotions. She was the first scientist to give them names rather than numbers.
- She observed strong mother-infant connections, which lasted well into adulthood. She noticed that the chimps who had been nurtured by their mother grew to be more secure as adults.
- And she observed that the alpha male chimps, who led by intimidation only “ruled” for a short time, while other chimps, who used intelligence and kindness, were able to lead for longer periods of time.
- She worked tirelessly to save the planet, to save the animals, and to save us, our human species.
There are tons of examples of her giving her inspiring and challenging messages (I loved the interviews by Stephen Colbert and Katie Couric – and on 60 Minutes!). But one of my favorites was when she was on a TED podcast interview about leadership in 2021. She was talking about different kinds of leadership among the chimp communities:
They have this very rigid dominance hierarchy. But it’s always changing as young ones start moving up the hierarchy, starting at the bottom when they’re in late adolescence… They have different methods of climbing the ladder. And when you consider those who’ve made it to the top, the alpha males, you know, some just use physical strength, and they’re aggressive and slightly brutal and do a lot of attacking. They don’t last as long as those who use their intelligence.
In fact, when I see two chimpanzee males bristling, swaggering upright, a furious scowl on their face, using intimidation tactics … it reminds me just exactly of some human male politicians…. I don’t think human female politicians use the same tactics, at least I haven’t seen them. I mean, I’m thinking of the last election, and I’m thinking of when Hilary Clinton was talking, and Donald Trump was kind of looming. Do you remember how he used to loom behind her? Threatening, swaggering way, that was so chimpanzee-like.
On a personal level, I think this means that we should all lead by example, by treating others as individuals, listening, and being kind. On a societal level, maybe this time of leadership by brutality won’t last long. And maybe we can still turn things around. Jane Goodall was never bamboozled and never gave up hope. May we all be a little more like Jane.