Posts Tagged ‘Chimpanzees’

In the Shadow of Man by Jane Goodall book review

In the Shadows of Man

by Jane Goodall

Ahh, the classic Jane Goodall book, In the Shadow of Man.  This was Jane’s first mainstream book that was published back in 1971.  The subject of this book?  Studying the wild chimpanzees and the life she lived while observing them.

In the Shadow of Man captures animals as emotional beings, something that had rarely been done. Goodall tells the story of the “F” family of chimpanzees and follows other families with many photos to go along with the stories.  It is fun to read about the chimps playing and fighting with the babboons followed by seeing a photo of a baboon charging a chimp while the chimpanzee throws a rock to defend itself.

There are many fantastic photos of Jane Goodall and the chimpanzees.  With 64 total pages of black and white photos you can really understand the life Goodall and her photographer ex-husband Hugo Van Lawick lived while.

A Chimp in the family book by Vince Smith

A Chimp in the Family by Vince Smith tells the story of Sophie, a baby Chimpanzee born at the Chester Zoo in England, who was abandoned by her mother and was raised by humans along side a human baby.

The infant chimp was taken to the author’s home and hand-reared by Vince Smith, something that is very common when chimpanzees and other great apes do not want to raise their children for themselves.  After six months of living with the young Sophie, Smith’s wife gave birth to Oliver, Sophie’s future playmate!

Vince tells the amazing story of how the upbringing of Olver and Sophie were remarkably similar.

What is great about this book is the fact that this happened very recently and the father was a very educated and impressive person, which means that there is plenty of very usefull scientific information gathered and shared in this book.  This practice of raising a human and chimpanzee baby side by side has been done before in the past, especially in the 1960’s, but alot has changed since the 60’s.  Jane Goodall had changed the deffinition of man at the end of the 60’s and by the time Vince Smith raised Sophie he had so much more of a foundation to really study the chimpanzee.

Another great thing about Chimp in the Family is the fact that Vince moved his family and Sophie to Africa to give the chimpanzee a better life!  There are amazing stories of trying to un-humanize Sophie and Vince does an amazing job to show Sophie what real chimpanzees do in the wild, including having to show her how to hunt for ants and termites.

If you are a chimpanzee lover, you really should check this book out.  Vince Smith has turned out to be quite the successful animal researcher and now is the regional director for the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, managing their mountain gorilla conservation program for Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

For further reading, please check out all of the animal books that i have reviewed.  Also please feel free to check out some of my animal pictures that i have taken!

The Naked Ape is a classic book on the origins of humans, written by Desmond Morris.  In this 1969 classic, Morris looks at human beings as animal-like creatures, something that was a very strange thing at the time.  The Naked Ape gives insight on man’s beginnings, sex life, habits and our bond to the animal kingdom.

This is a very adult book, very graphic and actually quite fun; by the funnest and most entertaining book i have seen so far.  The chapter on sex is fascinating.  I have spent hours at zoos and seen all different kinds of animals mating but it always fascinates me to see how other animals procreate and it’s qutie obvious the great apes (Chimpanzees, Gorillas and Orangutans) are the animals that mate most like us.

After the acknowleedgements and introduction, there are 9 main chapters in the Naked Ape:

1. Origins
2. Sex
3. Rearing
4. Exploration
5. Fighting
6. Feeding
7. Comfort
8. Animals
9. Appendix: Literature
10. Bibliography

Desmond Morris graduated from college in 1951 with a first class degree in zoology and went on to work at the Lond Zoo, heading the mammal department.  Not only is Morris a zoologist and author, he is also a surrealist painter.  He has also worked with chimpanzees in the 1950’s, training them to also paint.

This book is a reminder to humans that we are, in fact, just an animal.  We are a special animal in the family of the great apes, evolving from the same great apes millions of years ago.  Humans have evolved into an amazing being with many faults, but this ground breaking book was one of the first to really look at humans as animals and compare our complex lives with those other animals that we share this earth with.While this book is dated, it is still a very interesting and entertaining read.

For further reading, please check out all of the animal books that i have reviewed.  Also please feel free to check out some of my animal pictures that i have taken!

My Life with the Chimpanzees Book Review

Jane Goodall’s Book on Working with the Chimpanzees and her Life.

Jane Goodall Book for Kids or anyone looking for a quick introduction to the life and work of one of the most famous person to ever study chimpanzees or any kind of animal!

Jane Goodall talks about her adventures in Gombe National Park in Africa where she spent many years studying the wild animals she grew to love called the Chimpanzees.  From a young age Jane Goodall knew that working around animals was something she had to do and thankfully her parents fully supported her in her life choice.

This book is written like an adventure novel with thrilling stories about living in the wild with her husband and photographer and their son nicknamed Grub.  Jane Goodall’s study of the Chimpanzees has redefined the way humans look at other animals.  In fact, because of Jane Goodall, humans had to re-think what it is to be labeled as an animal.  It used to be known that only humans had the abilities to make tools and use them, but one day Goodall witnessed a chimpanzee using a man-made tool, something chimpanzees are amazing at.  After this discovery there have been many other animals seen in the wild using tools, including the obvious Gorillas and Orangutans, but also including the not so obvious dolphins and birds (view the vultures using a tool).

Why parents should buy this book

I really believe that when you teach your children about animals at an early age they will be more likely to want to help save the animals as they are adults.  Jane Goodall does an amazing job telling people about the importance of saving the chimpanzees and other animals in danger and has devoted her life to it.

With this book, My Life with the Chimpanzees, Jane Goodall brings you on an adventure and totally captures your imagination.  She also explains individual chimpanzees that she has met in her journeys and lets the reader really understand how different Chimpanzees can be, just like humans.

Can Adults Read this Book?

I must say that this is a great book for adults to read.  Although the print is large and it is a rather short book at only 160 pages and the “reading level” at ages 9-12, i can recommend this book to adults because the other option is a 768 page biography called Jane Goodall which is much harder to read than this. Plus, you can find this at most Book stores for the low price of $6.99!

Here is a quote from an amazon reviewer.

The book was purchased for a project learning about Jane Goodall. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t look closely enough before buying the book to realize it was written for young readers. Even though it wasn’t appropriate for my college level project, I read through it anyway and found it to be an excellent book.