Following Fifi: My Adventures Among Wild Chimpanzees: Lessons from our Closest Relatives

Crocker, John

ISBN 10: 1681775689 / ISBN 13: 9781681775685

Published by Pegasus Books, NY, 2017

About this Item

A stock image [photo] is an accurate representation of the listed book's dust jacket design. Complete number line at copyright page. NON price-clipped dust jacket [$ 27.95], clean, crisp, colors bright, minor display indications. Pages [269 including index] clean, unmarked, binding tight and square. Illustrated with three 8-page section of color photographs, a one 4-page section of B&W portraits of the "Main Players" [Fifi and 5 other chimps], a B&W drawing of the author's hut and a map. Black boards, clean, green spine, metallic green lettering. There is a small dent at the bottom edges of a few pages. Foreword is by Jane Goodall. Media Mail, Priority & most international shipping include free tracking information. Every book listed is located in my smoke free and climate controlled shop. All are inspected by me and will have qualities and/or flaws described.

Seller Inventory # 012517

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Following Fifi: My Adventures Among Wild Chimpanzees: Lessons from our Closest Relatives
• Publisher: Pegasus Books, NY
• Publication Date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1681775689
• ISBN 13: 9781681775685
• Binding: Hard Cover
• Illustrator: Various Photographers
• Edition: Stated First Edition, First Printing.
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine
• Seller catalogs:
  • Travel & Geography
  • Biographies & Memoirs
  • Nature & Animals

About this title

Synopsis

An exhilarating quest into a remote African forest to examine chimpanzees and understand the roots of human behavior.

As a young student, John Crocker embarked on the adventure of a lifetime, spending eight months in the Gombe forest working with Jane Goodall. He followed families of wild chimpanzees from sunrise to sunset and learned the fundamental behavioral traits of these chimps as they raised their offspring.

One chimpanzee captivated him. Her name was Fifi, and she displayed extraordinary patience and reassurance toward her infant, Freud. Upon returning home and becoming a doctor, Crocker found himself incorporating the lessons he learned from Fifi into his work as a father and physician. When he witnessed his young patients rocketing around his exam room, he would picture Fifi’s patience and tacit approval of Freud’s uninhibited and joyful exploration.

Crocker shares how his time spent with our closest animal cousins has helped him better understand his patients with ADD, anxiety, and depression, and how primate traits hardwired into our own natural behavior help chimpanzees protect their community, raise their young, and survive. Finally, chronicling his return to Gombe thirty-six years later with his own son, he reflects on how his experience with the chimps has come full circle.

An illuminating book that will raise thought-provoking questions about the evolution of human behavior and the importance of patience and strong family bonds, Following Fifi provides a greater understanding of what it means to be human. 

About the Author

John Crocker has been practicing family medicine in Seattle for thirty-five years. He attended Stanford University, where he met Jane Goodall. He received his MD from Case Western School of Medicine in Cleveland. Dr. Crocker is a popular speaker on primate behavior and has written for the Huffington Post about lessons learned from our closest living relatives. This is his first book.

Jane Goodall continues to study and write about primate behavior and is the author of several books. She founded the Gombe Stream Research Center in Gombe National Park, Tanzania, and the Jane Goodall Institute for Wild Life Research, Education, and Conservation to provide ongoing support for field research on wild chimpanzees.