AMONG THE WILD CHIMPANZEES: A NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY SPECIAL (TV)
Summary
One in this occasional series of nature specials, presented by The National Geographic Society. This 1984 program focuses on English primatologist/ethologist Jane Goodall's ongoing scientific study of the lives of a community of wild chimpanzees in the forests of Tanzania, which she originated twenty-four years earlier. Prior to highlighting some of the most profound discoveries of Goodall'sstudy, the program briefly documents how she was chosen for what archaeolgist and anthropologist Louis Leakey envisioned as a ten-year study that would offer insight into the behavior of early man. Buoyed by footage that was filmed throughout the study, these highlights, among others, are examined: the day (July 14, 1960) the untrained Goodall arrived at the remote Gombe Stream Game Reserve in Tanganyika to begin her study; her early frustrating attempts to find the gorillas; examples of the nomadic animals dramatic behavioral extremes; the various ways she grew gradually closer to the chimps; a particular family of chimps she names and monitors, including the mother Flo and her son Flint; her findings about the primates' tribal hierarchy and child rearing; her dramatic discovery that chimps make and use tools to gather food and water; Goodall's equally startling discovery that chimps are not gentle vegetarians but are capable of predatory carnivorous behavior; footage of chimps looking at a mirror for the first time; footage of Goodall grooming one of the chimps; a 1966 polio epidemic which devastated the chimp community; footage of Goodall's young son -- whom she had with her husband and documentarian Hugo Van Lawick -- growing up in Tanzania; Flint's rejection of Flo's attempts to make him independent, which eventually results in dire consequences for both of them; Goodall's explanation as to why her study would have resulted in an incomplete picture of the chimps if she had abandoned it after ten years, as per Leakey's suggestion; the splintering of the primate community, which resulted in brutal warfare waged by the dominant tribe; the repeated occurrence of kidnapping and cannibalism of baby chimps by a mother chimp named Passion, who had previously exhibited unnatural behavior and a lack of maternal instincts; and Goodall states her ambition to maintain her study until she is no longer physically capable and to train a replacement to continue the research in her stead.
Cataloging of this program was made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Details
- NETWORK: PBS
- DATE: January 11, 1984 Wednesday 8:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:58:10
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:11711
- GENRE: Science/Nature
- SUBJECT HEADING: Chimps
- SERIES RUN: PBS - TV series, 1975-
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Dennis B. Kane … Executive Producer
- Thomas Skinner … Executive Producer
- Barbara Jampel … Producer, Writer
- Van Lawick, Hugo … Co-Producer
- Linda Reavely … Production (Misc.), Production Coordinator
- William Loose … Music by
- Jack Tillar … Music by
- Alexander Scourby … Narrator
- Flo (chimp)
- Flint (chimp)
- Passion (chimp)
- Jane Goodall
- Van Lawick, Hugo, Jr. ("Grub")