
DATE: Tuesday, October 7, 1997              TAG: 9710070060

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY NANCY LEWIS, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   92 lines

EXHIBIT AT NORFOLK ZOO HONORS GROUND-BREAKING OBSERVER OF CHIMPS

JANE GOODALL'S long fingers stretch toward the stubby outreached fingers of an adolescent chimpanzee, a touch about to bridge eons of travel down divergent evolutionary paths.

An impish toddler chimp with black marble eyes and saucer ears is poised to yank the long tail of an unsuspecting baboon.

The tinsel strands of a waterfall form a stark silver backdrop for the shadowy figure that strides upright along the bank of Tanzania's Gombe Stream, the swing of its arms remarkably human.

These images are among 30 photographs by noted National Geographic Society wildlife photographer Hugo Van Lawick on display at the Virginia Zoo through Nov. 30. The 24-by-18-inch color panels highlight Goodall's decades of hands-on research in Tanzania among the primates genetically closest to humans.

The Van Lawick photographs often blur the African bush in favor of focusing the viewer's eye on the interaction between Goodall and the chimps.

The animals' faces are astonishingly full of emotion:

A gnarled oldster stares quizzically into the camera. A mother and father chimp cuddle their infant tenderly, protectively.

The peek at Africa through the camera's lens is a ``teaser, a taste,'' of a major new African exhibit for which ground will be broken soon, says Jane Browning, president of the Virginia Zoological Society.

The zoo, in cooperation with the city of Norfolk, expects to begin construction of the first of five continental habitats, replicating the natural environment of the animals that will live there. The $10 million African habitat will feature a savannah with grazing herbivores such as giraffes, zebras and elephants as well as a habitat for carnivores, lions among them. The African display will open to visitors in late 1999.

Goodall was chosen to undertake the chimp study by famed anthropologist and paleontologist Louis Leakey. He said it was her patience and persistent desire to understand animals that prompted his choice. He said he believed a mind uncluttered by academia would yield a fresh perspective.

Jane Goodall's fascination with the animal kingdom began at an early age. As a curious 4-year-old, she spent hours cramped in a hen house, patiently waiting for a hen to lay an egg. The children's stories of Tarzan and Dr. Doolittle planted more seeds of fascination.

In the summer of 1960, Goodall went to East Africa's Lake Tanganyika to begin her life's work.

Van Lawick, who later married Goodall, joined her in the field. The study they compiled remains one of the most detailed of any primate. It laid the groundwork for future primate studies.

When Goodall began her study of Tanzania's wild chimpanzees, little was known about them. Their anatomy had been described as had their behavior in captivity, but no one had observed chimps for more than brief periods.

Today, nearly four decades later, Goodall's research has made it clear that the big-eared creatures have more in common with mankind that was once thought. They make and use tools, a skill previously considered uniquely human.

Goodall watched as chimps selected twigs and blades of grass, modified them and ``fished'' for termites in the huge termite mounds that abound on the African continent. Often, she learned, chimps carried the same tool with them for future use.

They often improvise, using chewed-up wads of leaves to sponge water from hard-to-reach places and using sticks as levers to open boxes containing food. Like humans, chimps have opposable digits on their hands.

Goodall discovered that, contrary to a long-held view, chimps are not vegetarians. They kill and eat other animals - including baboons, bushpigs and bushbucks. Groups of males sometimes hunt cooperatively for meat, she documented, providing evidence of planning.

About 150 chimpanzees live in the 30-square-mile Gombe National Park. Under Goodall's direction, behavioral and ecological projects focusing on the chimps and on olive baboons continue to provide more insight. MEMO: For more information on the exhibit or the zoo expansion, call

624-9937. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

Hugo Van Lawick's photo of Jane Goodall with a baby chimp, part of

the exhibit at the Virginia Zoo

FILE PHOTO

The work of Jane Goodall, observing chimpanzees in their East

African native habitat, began in 1960.

Graphic

WANT TO GO?/ What? ``The Chimps of Gombe Stream,'' photography

exhibit by Hugo Van Lawick.

Where? Education Center, The Virginia Zoo, 3500 Granby Street,

Norfolk

When? Through November 30.