"Now more than ever, we must recognize that animals do matter. They are more than symbols of geographic and political divides. They deserve more out of life than to be casualties in our own failed efforts to coexist with one another, much less the natural world. Their worth is not a function of how "human" they look or act. And just as we appreciate individuality in people, so too must we value it in other animals."
"In November 1960, she observed the chimpanzee David Greybeard making and using a tool by stripping leaves from a straw stick to extract termites by inserting it into their mound. Her seminal observations of a nonhuman making and using a tool were met with skepticism by her colleagues until she showed them a video of this behavior. In response to this important discovery, palaeoanthropologist and archaeologist Louis Leakey claimed, "Now we must redefine tool, redefine M"
Jane Goodall's pioneering observation of chimpanzee tool use in November 1960 reshaped understandings of animal intelligence and blurred perceived divides between humans and other animals. Her research established an agenda spanning more than sixty-five years of study of chimpanzees, great apes, and many nonhuman animals. Animals deserve moral consideration beyond political or geographic symbolism and should not be treated as casualties of human failure to coexist with the natural world. Animal worth does not depend on how "human" they appear or behave. Individuality in nonhuman animals merits appreciation. Human and animal fates are deeply interconnected. Jane Goodall died on Oct. 1, 2025; Colorado proclaimed that date Jane Goodall Day.
Read at Psychology Today
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