The Chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns of Behavior

A comprehensive, up-to-date account of the renowned scientist's quarter-century field study of chimpanzees details their distinct personalities, their complex society, and the surprising behavioral findings of the last few years

Fascinating reading...Miss Goodall's book may well emerge as the most significant ethological monograph based on field study in this half century. Its implications for the study of human evolution are enormous, as it brings together for the first time in book form detailed information on the biology, ecology and culture of an animal uncannily similar to ourselves. (John H. Crook New York Times Book Review)

I believe that Jane Goodall is one of the intellectual heroes of this century...She has amassed in this quarter century our first adequate and comprehensive account of the natural behavior of our closest animal relative. What in all natural history could possibly be of more interest and importance to us? This large and well-illustrated book (never forget that all primates are primarily visual animals) is a long progress report of work that must continue...I treasure this book most of all for its quiet and unobtrusive proof, by iterated example rather than theoretical bombast, that close observation of individual differences can be as powerful a method in science as the quantification of predictable behavior in a zillion identical atoms. (Stephen Jay Gould New York Review of Books)

Monumental...Few people...can really enter the mind of the chimpanzee and then emerge to write about it well, but Jane Goodall is indisputably the best. (W. C. McGrew Nature)

Jane Goodall is one of the wise people in the field of primatology. There are few wise people in any field; they are precious...The Chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns of Behavior sums up two and a half decades of research...Goodall's fascination with the chimpanzees as individuals, and her conviction that scientific study of chimp behavior should illuminate the role of individuals in society, make The Chimpanzees of Gombe a delight to read. (Alison Jolly Natural History)

An historical document. The book gives us for the first time a comprehensive analysis of chimpanzee behavior in its full range of activities, and draws extensively from the work of other investigators as well as from the studies at Gombe...With The Chimpanzees of Gombe, Goodall's primacy in animal behavior studies is brought into clear focus. Like the man [Louis Leakey] who hired her as an office worker 26 years ago, Goodall may already qualify as a legend in her own time. (David M. Walsten Chicago Tribune)