Dr. Goodall: The best place for a chimpanzee to be, in the best of all possible worlds, is living in the wild in a safe place in Africa. Sadly, the safe places are getting fewer and smaller. It may be that some chimpanzees in the really good zoos where they have a lot of space, a good family group, and many enrichment activities (providing them with things to do to exercise their brains), will be better off, unfortunately, than many chimps in the wild in Africa. The really sad chimps are pets and those in medical research labs and in entertainment. And some zoos are absolutely appalling, especially in the developing world.
CT Boy: Dr. Goodall, I am an eight year old boy who loves your work. What can my school do to help the orphaned chimps?
Dr. Goodall: First of all, thank you for being interested and wanting to help. I would suggest becoming a Roots & Shoots group and saving up the money to become a guardian of one of our orphaned chimpanzees. The information is on our website. You can also help by telling people how cruel it is for chimpanzees in entertainment. Learn about the bushmeat trade in Africa, where hunters kill animals to sell them for meat.
Tiffany K: Do you feel that the plight of the chimps is better now or progressively worse?
Dr. Goodall: The plight of the chimps is, sadly, still getting worse in most parts of Africa because of habitat destruction, the bushmeat trade, getting caught in wire snares. The plight of chimps in captivity is gradually improving as people begin to understand. But we have a long way to go, and we are educating thousands of young people through Roots & Shoots. We have many Roots & Shoots groups who create enrichment activities, not only for chimps, but for other zoo animals as well. Many animals get terribly desperately bored, and anything we can do to help them is good.
Marbl Tulip: I graduated with an environmental policy degree and my love is for helping endangered species. Do you have any advice for someone like me trying to pursue a lifelong career and dream out of helping animals?
Dr. Goodall: I think it's like the answer I gave earlier — it's necessary to keep alert for opportunities. I know many people who found opportunities on the internet. Be ready to seize an opportunity, and never give up!
Green Windows: It is clear that you are dedicated to this work for life. Thank you. Will your staff around the world, including the current researchers in Gombe carry on your legacy and work indefinitely? In other words, how much of a role do you play in keeping all of the JGI (Jane Goodall Institute) programs going?
Dr. Goodall: One of our main topics of conversation is JGI after Jane! We are talking about a legacy. In part, that means being absolutely clear about our mission, our goals, our plans for the future, and sharing this with all the JGI's, of which there are 16. Of course, it also means raising some sort of legacy fund. It's very important to move away from using Jane to be the main fundraiser. This is happening. The JGI USA board is now very dynamic and creative, and I'm enormously reassured that if my plane crashes any time soon, the work will, indeed, continue in the way that I've envisaged.
