Through a Window: My Thirty Years with the Chimpanzees of Gombe Book

Through a Window: My Thirty Years with the Chimpanzees of Gombe has a slow start. If you are bored at the beginning do not give up! By the end I was captivated. I came to feel close to the chimps. They had become my friends and I their fan. I related to them as to fellow human beings.

Today it is common knowledge that animals have both emotions and intelligence. When Jane Goodall began her work in 1960 with the chimpanzees in Gombe, Tanzania, behavioral psychology ruled. Her views were criticized as being anthropomorphic. The start of the book discusses this, as well as describing the improved tools and techniques now available to scientists in their study of animals'DNA coding, fecal analyses, GPS and advanced computer software.

Thereafter follows a section concerning chimpanzees' sexual idiosyncrasies and behavior pattern. This I found tedious and repetitive. The reader does not yet view the chimpanzees as separate, identifiable individuals. They are a conglomerate, a group, rather than individuals to whom one can relate.

Then the book improves. It is here the book begins to focus upon individual chimpanzees at Gombe, as well as some of the baboons that resided there. The focus shifts to information about particular chimpanzees. We learn to recognize each by name and personality. We learn who is related to whom and their respective social standing. Each one has a history. Each chimpanzee and the relationships that develop between them take on a whole new dimension.

We learn of the seductress Gigi, unable to give birth, she lovingly cares for other young and orphans. We see how Passion and her daughter Pom became vicious, hateful cannibals. There is Melissa, the tenacious mother of twins, her daughter Gremlin and her most endearing grandson Getty who dies. Goodall's heart fell to the grey-chinned David Greybeard. Mine went out to the huge, chickenhearted Jomeo. He tries to pull off an impressive splash by rolling down a boulder, but it would not budge. He trips over tree roots, bungles all attempts at hunting and is clearly the laughingstock of the community. He melted my heart. It is in getting to know the individual chimps that the book comes to the fore. Their feelings and their behavior are so similar to our own; one cannot help but compare and think.

The book ties up well. Intriguing conclusions are drawn comparing both the similarities and differences between humans and chimpanzees. Humans' and chimpanzees' genetic make-up differ by only a little more than one percent. An afterword and two appendices stress the importance of conservation of chimpanzee habitats, sanctuaries, education and improved pharmaceutical labs and testing facilities. The Jane Goodall Institute is to be lauded.

Jane closes by quoting Albert Schweitzer:

"We need a boundless ethic that includes animals too."

In coming close to the Gombe chimpanzees, readers empathize and feel the urgent need to bring about change.

The audiobook is narrated by Pearl Hewitt. The reading is fine, but I would have preferred a more resonant, stronger voice. Th conclusion, afterword and appendices she reads too fast. I have given the narration three stars.

The book is more a biography of the chimps than it is a biography of Jane.

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Other books of interest:

*Through a Window: My Thirty Years with the Chimpanzees of Gombe 4 stars
*Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel (4 stars)
*How Dogs Love Us: A Neuroscientist and His Adopted Dog Decode the Canine Brain (5 stars)
*The Genius of Dogs: How Dogs Are Smarter than You Think (4 stars)
*The Art of Raising a Puppy (4 stars)
*Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? (3 stars)
*Mousy Cats and Sheepish Coyotes: The Science of Animal Personalities (3 stars)
*Love, Life, and Elephants: An African Love Story ( 3 stars)
*Mind of the Raven: Investigations and Adventures with Wolf-Birds (4 stars)
*Wesley the Owl: The Remarkable Love Story of an Owl and His Girl (5 stars)
*One Wild Bird at a Time: Portraits of Individual Lives (4 stars)
*Alex & Me: How a Scientist and a Parrot Discovered a Hidden World of Animal Intelligence'and Formed a Deep Bond in the Process (3 stars)
(I mention the book on Alex only because it is covered in de de Waal's book. I didn't love it.)