《永遠只有一個珍·古德》（1/2）

 Recently the New York Times reported the following:

(Source: the NYT)

‘There Will Always Only Be One Jane Goodall’ (1/2)

Scientists reflect on the life and work of a researcher whose discoveries made them rethink what it means to be human.

The NYT -By Carl Zimmer and Emily Anthes

Oct. 1, 2025

Most people know Jane Goodall, who died Wednesday, as a silver-haired conservationist who chatted with Stephen Colbert and gave speeches to the United Nations in defense of nature. For scientists, however, it’s the young Jane Goodall who followed wild chimpanzees for weeks at a time who endures as an icon.

“There will always only be one Jane Goodall,” said Michael Tomasello, an expert on the origin of language at Duke University.

In 1957, Dr. Goodall’s scientific career started with a phone call. At the time, she was only 23, having worked as a waitress and a secretary. But she had educated herself deeply about animals, and wanted to find a way to work with them.

She called the paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey, who at the time was uncovering spectacular fossils of early humans and apes in Africa. She impressed him so much that he offered to support an expedition to Tanzania, where she would observe chimpanzees.

Dr. Goodall began her work at Gombe Stream Research Center in 1960. The chimpanzees there grew accustomed to her presence, allowing her to learn how to tell them apart. Soon she began noticing them behaving in surprising ways.

She observed one male chimpanzee, whom she later named David Greybeard, deliberately break off a stalk of grass and slip it into a termite mound to fish for insects. Later, she saw other chimpanzees use tools as well.

When Dr. Goodall relayed her observations to Leakey, he was stunned. Making tools seemed like a hallmark of humans and far beyond the ability of a mere ape.

“Now we must redefine ‘tool,’ redefine ‘man,’ or accept chimpanzees as humans,” he declared.

Dr. Goodall also uncovered a rich system of communication among Gombe’s chimpanzees. The sounds they made were not random noises but distinct calls. They rounded out those calls with gestures made with their hands and heads.

The longer Dr. Goodall observed the chimpanzees of Gombe, the more distinctive they became as individuals. Some of the apes were dominant, while others languished at the bottom of the hierarchy. Some were kind, others were cruel, and many were both.

Dr. Goodall, who earned her Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge, shared her observations both in scientific papers and in hugely popular books. Some experts criticized her for giving the Gombe chimpanzees names instead of numbers, and for suggesting that they had individual personalities.

But her writing drew in generations of new scientists who did more research on chimpanzees and other apes. “It was after reading her books that I put on my boots and binoculars and went out in the jungle,” said Catherine Crockford, an expert on chimpanzees at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

Many of Dr. Goodall’s initial observations turned out to be remarkably prescient. “She opened the window into the mind of chimpanzees,” said Martin Surbeck, an evolutionary biologist at Harvard.

Subsequent studies demonstrated that many animals besides chimpanzees have personalities. “It was a paradigm shift,” said Marc Bekoff, an expert on animal minds and behavior at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and a close friend of and frequent collaborator with Dr. Goodall. He was in the middle of working on a children’s book with her when she died. “‘It’s called ‘Every Elephant Has A Name,’” he said.

(to be continued)

Translation

《永遠只有一個珍·古德》（1/2）

科學家回顧了一位研究者的生平和工作，其發現讓他們重新思考作為人的意義

大多數人所熟知的珍·古德 (Jane Goodall) ，於週三去世。她是一位銀髮蒼蒼的自然資源保護主義者，曾與 Stephen Colbert 交談，並在聯合國發表演講捍衛大自然。然而，對科學家來說，年輕時曾連續數週追蹤野生黑猩猩的珍古德是他們心中的偶像。

Duke大學語言起源專家 Michael Tomasello說: 「永遠只有一個珍‧古德」。

1957年，古德博士的科學生涯始於一個聯絡電話。當時，她年僅23歲，做過服務生和秘書。但她深入了解對動物，並想找到一份與牠們有關的工作。

她聯繫了古人類學家 Louis Leakey，當時 Leakey正在非洲發現令人驚嘆的早期人類和猿類化石。她給 Leakey留下了深刻的印象，使 Leakey主動提出支持她前往坦尚尼亞進行考察，以便她在那裡觀察黑猩猩。

古德博士於1960年開始在 Gombe Stream 研究中心工作。那裡的黑猩猩逐漸習慣了她的存在，這讓她學會如何區分它們。很快，她就開始注意到它們的行為舉止令人驚訝。

她觀察到一隻雄性黑猩猩（後來被她命名為 David Greybeard）會故意折斷一根草莖，塞進白蟻丘里捕捉蟻蟲。後來，她還看到其他黑猩猩也會使用工具。

當古德博士將她的觀察轉達給 Leakey時，Leakey 驚呆了。製造工具似乎是人類的標誌，這遠遠超出了普通猿類的能力。

Leakey宣稱: “現在我們必須重新定義‘工具’，重新定義‘人類’，或接受黑猩猩是人類」。

古德博士也發現了在 Gombe的黑猩猩之間有豐富的溝通系統。它們發出的聲音並非隨機的噪音，而是獨特的叫聲。它們用手和頭的姿勢來補充這些叫聲。

古德博士觀察 Gombe黑猩猩的時間越長，越覺它們個體之間的差異就越大。有些猿類佔據主導地位，而有些則處於社會底層。有些猿類善良，有些則殘忍，還有很多兩者都是。

古德博士從劍橋大學獲得了博士學位, 她在科學論文和暢銷書中分享了她的觀察。一些專家批評她給了Gombe黑猩猩名字而不是編號，並暗示它們具有獨特的個性。

但她的著作吸引了一代又一代的新科學家，他們對黑猩猩和其他猿類進行了更多的研究。 Max Planck進化人類學研究所的黑猩猩專家Catherine Crockford 說道: 「正是在讀了她的書之後，我才穿上靴子，帶上雙筒望遠鏡，走進叢林」。

古德博士的許多初步觀察結果被證明具有非凡的先見之明。哈佛大學演化生物學家 Martin Surbeck說: 「她打開了通往黑猩猩思維的窗戶」。

後續研究表明，除了黑猩猩之外，許多動物也具有個性。 科羅拉多大學博爾德分校的動物思維和行為專家Marc Bekoff說道: 「這是一種範式轉變」; 他是古德博士的密友，並經常與她合作。當古德博士過世時，他正與她合作創作一本兒童讀物。 他說: 「這本書的名字叫《每頭大像都有名字》」。

（待續）