Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 16, 1990 TAG: 9005160291
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DIANA E. LUNDIN LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium
Goodall wanted the slacks for an appearance on a national talk show; a concierge at the Sheraton Universal Hotel was brought to her lunch table.
"What I don't want is hundreds of pleats," Goodall told the concierge. "I want something tailored, smooth, fairly simple. Just plain and ordinary. I realize I might have to endure a few pleats . . . but I don't want anything fancy, frilly or modern."
The exchange was telling. Goodall might as well have been describing herself when she described the trousers.
She is trying to make some kind of a dent in her two main missions these days: the humane treatment of animals and the conservation of Africa.
"I'm just doing my best. I can't do any more than that, can I?" she said.
A private woman, Goodall is subjecting herself to an intense schedule of university lectures and media interviews as she marks her 30th year at the Gombe Stream Research Center she established in Tanzania.
She is the subject of two upcoming cable documentaries: One this month on HBO, is called "Chimps: So Like Us"; the other, "The Life and Legend of Jane Goodall," a National Geographic Explorer special, appears May 20, 21 and 26 on TBS.
A new book, "Through the Window," will be published this fall as a sequel to her successful "In the Shadow of Man" (Houghton Mifflin; $19.95).
And she was also in Los Angeles recently to make preparations for a tribute dinner, called "Gombe 30," to raise funds for her international research centers and to note her 30 years of conducting the longest unbroken study of any animal species in the wild.
The 56-year-old Goodall doesn't relish the limelight's glare, finding the attention a bit curious, but she believes it is necessary to travel and talk in the urban jungle to pass on her dual messages.
"It amazes me how often I'm recognized in the most unlikely of places, like shopping malls in the middle of some tiny place," she said, picking at a red snapper fillet at lunch. " `Is that the lady who studies chimpanzees?' It never ceases to amaze me."
While she doesn't thrive on the recognition, it does point out to her "the extent the message is getting across, and, therefore, I endure it because it's the only way we'll ever get things changed, the attitude toward animals. We need a new kind of respect."
Goodall is aghast at how animals are treated, not only in research labs, where they are isolated in small cages, but how they are raised for food, in factory farms or for their fur.
"I think it was very arrogant for us to assume in the beginning that we can use animals any way we wanted," she said. "You could understand how it happened - we were originally hunters and gatherers. We needed animals to live.
"But now we ought to understand if we're going to use animals for our own need, we should at least treat them humanely. That goes for pets, too. You can see animal abuse everywhere."
Her years studying chimps tell her they are a lot like humans.
"We share lots of intellectual abilities that we used to believe were unique to ourselves - rational thought, they can solve problems. Even in the wild, they can make and use tools," Goodall said.
But, more importantly, Goodall said, the chimps have feelings. Their emotions appear to be similar to those of humans.
"Now, we can't prove that," she said. "I can't even prove when you say you're feeling joyful that your feeling is the same as my feeling when I say I'm feeling joyful. So, when you get to another species, it's even harder."
The differences between humans and chimpanzees in the genetic material DNA is just more than 1 percent, she said.
"They are more like us than any other creature," she said. "So much of their behavior is similar to ours. Non-verbal communication, kissing, hugging, embracing, patting on the back. Why would we suddenly assume that the emotions would be different. It doesn't make sense, does it?"
It often comes down to a look, she said.
"You have the same movement and sounds and expressions in the context in which I would be feeling as you look. Chimps are the same. A sad chimp has an expression we would label as sad in a human," Goodall said. "We're not justified in saying they're not feeling sad. We may not be able to prove they are, but we certainly can't prove that they are not." 12 1 GOODALL Goodall
by CNB