Happy World Chimpanzee Day, everybody!
World Chimpanzee Day is celebrated every July 14th to honor the day Dr. Jane Goodall first stepped foot in the Gombe forest to begin her studies of one of our closest living relatives. That landing in Tanzania marked the beginning of what has been an incredible adventure in our knowledge and understanding of chimpanzees.
One aspect of her studies I will kind of focus on today is the her method of naming the chimpanzees within the Gombe chimpanzee communities. Before her studies, it was common practice to not name the individuals she was studying. The old thought process behind that was to separate feeling and emotion from the study as to not get attached to them. Please remember it was a different time and the mentality wasn’t what it is today. We had to work up to where we are today in our way of thinking, and Dr. Goodall had a role in that shift.
I could not imagine working here and not seeing them as individuals. It’s unfathomable to me to think they each wouldn’t have their own likes and dislikes, or run through a gauntlet of emotions in the split of a second. They aren’t just mindless creatures you can just throw food and water at and call it a day. They are highly intelligent and need the proper care the reflects so. Hence why chimpanzees, or any primate for that matter, are not and should not be pets among a plethora of other ethical reasons.
So this World Chimpanzee Day, please become that advocate for them! Preach about the perils the face in the wild like poaching and deforestation! Donate to your favorite sanctuary! Politely inform people when the dreaded “I want a pet chimpanzee” comes up in conversation! Advocate! Advocate! Advocate!
Here are some photos from today!
