Jane Goodall talks about how chimps and humans age

By Laura Hambleton,
WashPost
Published: December 5

Jane Goodall, 77, has been studying chimpanzees for most of her life. Encouraged by famed anthropologist Louis Leakey and only 26 years old, Goodall set up camp in Gombe National Park in Tanzania to observe a group of wild chimps up close. She is credited with discovering that chimps use tools, are not vegetarians, care for one another and sometimes use violence against other chimps. She has also used her years of research — and hers is one of the longest scientific research projects in the world — to show how closely related humans and chimps are.

Now, in what she calls the final era of her life, Goodall is focusing less on the chimps and more on their human relatives — young ones in particular — encouraging them with her “Roots & Shoots” campaign to become good stewards of the environment. Recently Goodall spoke with The Post about the process of aging, from both a chimp’s perspective and from her uniquely human one.

You’ve spent your life studying chimps. Can you describe their aging process?

What you notice, wherever, in the wild or captivity, is teeth getting worn down, the body getting shrunken, losing its gloss; instead of being glossy black, it becomes brown gray. Their eyes become sunken. Their movement gets slower. They tend to get more solitary. They tend to move away from excited groups.

Here is where you notice a huge difference in an old male and an old female. Old females have no real menopause. They continue to have a baby every five years. Even when she is very old, she has her youngish child. It’s the tragedy of having no menopause. The last child is likely to die because the mother is too old to provide proper nutrition.

(More here.)