Gombe is a national park in Tanzania, one of East African countries. Jane Goodall is the primatologists in this research of the chimpanzees in Tanzania’s Gombe national parks. Goodall today runs an organization to help champion conservation of the environment and other endangered species (Goodall, 2010). Goodall founded Roots and shoots and the Jane Goodall institute through which she runs several of her activities. Although Goodall didn’t have collegiate training when she set out to go to Gombe stream 1960 to study the Kasakela Chimpanzee Community, Goodall's interactions with the primates has contributed a lot to the general idea about human beings and animals. For example, she observed that the Gombe chimpanzees could use tools as opposed to popular belief that existed before her discovery that only human beings can make and use tools. She also observed the Gombe chimpanzees eating termites and through this, the original position that Chimpanzees are vegetarians was proved wrong.
This documentary aims at changing human beings original thoughts about animals, their behaviors, lifestyle, mental capabilities and adaptation. The documentary has demystified a lot of things about animal cognition (Goodall, 2010). These Chimps have shown great mental capabilities from how they use twigs to fish for termites, modify leaves and use them for drinking water and also haul stones and sticks to intimidate the enemy. On the other side, this documentary has also shown that animals do have emotional and spiritual attachments. As Goodall explains, the display that the chimps put when they are near the river show some emotional changes when they get close to such beautiful natural scenes like the river. The animals display also give a glimpse of their spirituality and sense of belief (Chimps of Gombe, 2016). However through her own experience and interactions with the chimpanzees, we realize that these animals are not wild, Goodall gets close to them and even develops close relations with some of them like David Greybeard (Jane Goodall videos, 2016). This documentary’s objective hence is to overhaul human being’s perceptions of animals and also make us realize more about animals’ intelligence.
The primates shown in the video are pan troglodytes. They are of the Pan genus and the P. troglodyte species. These species are widely distributed and they live under a vast habitat ranging from the swamp forests, dry woodland, the dry savannas, montane forest and evergreen forests (ChimpanzeePan troglodytes, 2016). This vast range of habitats tell us that chimpanzees are adaptable to various habitats. The forests which occur at low altitudes have little temperature differences across the seasons, the air saturations is relatively high and rarely are there dry periods in a year. The arid areas which traverses from Tanzania to Senegal, i.e. the southeastern and north limits of their ranges, however are characterized by high margins of temperature fluctuations and humidity annually. They also experience long periods of dryness hence completely contrasting the low-latitude habitats. Chimpanzees also exist in Uganda, an East African country, in an area called Semliki and here, the habitat is characterized by 1206mm average annual rainfall and temperatures go up to a maximum of 340C (ChimpanzeePan troglodytes, 2016).
An individual male Chimpanzee hurling stones and sticks at the rest helps him to rise in ranks and hence gain respect in the groups within which they live. The individual Chimpanzee after gaining dominance is then able to influence a lot of the activities in the group they have dominated since they gain authority (Chimps of Gombe, 2016). To the group, this dominance creates authority in one and limits the authority of others. The close eye contact helps individual chimps communicate with each other. This is advantageous to the group since it helps them coordinate well. The production of low pitched sound from male chimpanzees enable a chimpanzee to show might to protect the group, to the group, this is advantageous as it gives them a sense of security since the sounds help them scare away the enemies and also enable them mark their territories (Chimps of Gombe, 2016).
Some behaviors of the chimpanzees are similar to human behaviors. Communication through eye contact is very common in human beings. Secondly, the chimpanzees show some appreciation for the beauty of nature as shown by the display they have when they are in the waterfall (Jane Goodall videos, 2016). Just as male human beings have always used their deep voices to command authority and the chimpanzees too are using their low pitched voices to dominate a certain territory. It is also a similar characteristic that Chimpanzees patrol to scare away the enemies just as human beings do.
This documentary has provided insights into some of the fundamental issue of animal cognition and also demystified some of the previous believes amongst human beings that man is the only animal that can make and use tools. Although the documentary wasn’t done by a primatologist who had a background of collegiate training, the documentary can be used to challenge learners about the theories and principles put forth by previous primatologists and the perceptions by the entire human race about primates. This documentary suits to be a new down for human beings to rethink the subject of animal cognition and carry out further research to gain more knowledge on animal intelligence.
Primates’ behavior and human behaviors have come out as so closely related more than we ever knew before. Just as Goodall states in the documentary, if human beings claim that our ability to make and use tools distinguishes us from other primates, then chimpanzees have too proven to be human beings (Jane Goodall videos, 2016) through this documentary. Also contrary to previous beliefs that animals have no emotions and hence cannot develop closer relations with human beings, this documentary has shown that chimpanzees can actually live with human beings and develop very close relationships with us. The primates’ behaviors like patrolling suggest their adaptability to environment, for example, that which could be characterized by enemies.
References
Jane Goodall videos: Free Download & Streaming: Internet Archive. (n.d.). Retrieved April 26, 2016, from https://archive.org/details/JaneGoodallVideos
Chimps of Gombe. (n.d.). Retrieved April 26, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLD0985B458A8DD54F
ChimpanzeePan troglodytes. (n.d.). Retrieved April 26, 2016, from http://pin.primate.wisc.edu/factsheets/entry/chimpanzee
Goodall, J. (2010). Through a window: My thirty years with the chimpanzees of Gombe. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
