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Title: Goodall's chimps today

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/usatoday/20020924/en_usatoday/4474157

Goodall's chimps today
Tue Sep 24, 7:58 AM ET

Tim Friend USA TODAY

Jane Goodall, the real-life Queen of the Jungle for children and young adults in the 1960s, is being introduced to a new generation. 

The world first met Goodall through the now-classic series of National Geographic (  news -  web sites) television documentaries about her work with chimpanzees in Africa. Goodall inspired thousands of people to study animals and nature and helped prove the value of studying animals in their natural environments. 

Beginning next week, Goodall likely will capture the hearts and minds of young people once again with the opening of the new IMAX documentary Jane Goodall's Wild Chimpanzees. Just as television was the mesmerizing medium that brought the wilds of Africa directly into people's living rooms, the film's producers believe IMAX is a format that has the power to grab the attention of youth today.

''IMAX in the context of museums is extremely popular with students. Some of our films have been part of school curricula for more than 10 years,'' says Mike Day, director and executive producer of documentary films at the Science Museum of Minnesota in St. Paul. ''This project was a chance to film the world's most famous chimpanzees with the world's largest film format.''

In 1997, a team of producers approached Goodall to propose the IMAX project. The idea was to bring the public up to date on the work conducted over the past several decades.

''We discovered that Dr. Goodall has very high name recognition, but it is a very dated recognition left over from National Geographic documentaries,'' Day says. ''I believe Jane will inspire a new generation'' through the film.

The National Science Foundation (  news -  web sites) provided $1.6 million for the $6 million project. The funding was for the production of the film and the creation of the educational materials and programs. One highlight was an Educator Leadership Institute last summer attended by public program developers and educators from 30 museums. The museums are conducting public workshops and creating special exhibits to accompany the film.

The IMAX film will travel to science museums around the country. Some museums also will display a traveling 6,000-square-foot interactive (  news -  external web site) exhibit that includes a mock-up of Goodall's base camp in the Gombe Stream region of Tanzania. Visitors can learn the trademark call of the chimpanzee known as the pant hoot. Information on schedules, filming and educational material are at  www.wildchimpanzees.org.

Jane Goodall's Wild Chimpanzees spans 40 years of Goodall's missionary-like efforts to save Africa's chimpanzees from extinction. It also reveals a side of Goodall that many people may not know. She operates an orphanage for nearly 200 chimpanzees whose mothers were killed by poachers, and she works with schools worldwide through a program she created called Roots and Shoots. It has more than 4,000 chapters that teach children about nature, different cultures and how to preserve the environment. The Ten Trusts: What We Must Do to Care for the Animals We Love, by Goodall and co-author Marc Bekoff, has just landed in bookstores.

Goodall, 66, travels almost every day of the year, more than most heads of state, to deliver her message of preserving nature to universities, elementary schools, foundations and government officials, to name a few. After her work with the chimpanzees at Gombe, which would be enough for most people's careers, why does she keep such a rigorous schedule?

''It sounds ridiculous, but I guess I was given a gift of communication, and I had such tremendous luck to be in the wild with the chimpanzees,'' she says. ''I know that when I talk to people, they get inspired to make a difference. So I have to do it. If it didn't have that effect on people, I wouldn't do it.''

The IMAX documentary begins with early black-and-white footage of the original chimpanzees, which included David Graybeard (Goodall's favorite, who has since died), Flo, young Frodo, little Gremlin, and infant Fifi, who was the first of the group to make physical contact with her in 1960. Fifi toddles over to a young, ponytailed Goodall and touches her nose.

After only a few minutes of archival footage, the screen bursts into color with a dizzying IMAX signature flyover of modern-day Tanzania. The next thing you know, the jungle has surrounded you on the 90-foot-tall screen. The only thing missing from this immersion in sight and sound is the smell of the chimps.

''I've seen umpteen films of Jane in the early days but never in this format,'' Goodall says. ''It is very powerful. I was in tears when I saw the scenes with David Graybeard.''

The chimpanzees Goodall studied with groundbreaking patience and persistence became at least as famous as their queen, probably because she named them. Naming the subjects of a scientific study is a no-no in animal behavior research. Goodall was admonished for it at the time by other scientists, but she didn't care and neither did the public.

''I don't think people would have been as interested if David Graybeard had been number 29,'' Goodall says. ''With names, the chimpanzees made their way into people's hearts.''

Without the attention Goodall brought to the chimpanzees, they likely would have vanished from poaching and habitat loss. But Goodall convinced the government of Tanzania to turn Gombe into a national park.

Many changes are apparent at Gombe since that first visit in 1960. Frodo, a toddler at the time, is now the biggest chimpanzee in the group (at 115 pounds) and the dominant male. Adult chimpanzee males are much stronger than human males. Goodall disapprovingly describes Frodo as a bully, and he rules with an iron fist. A younger bully at Gombe also is in the making, a male aptly named Titan. Perhaps leaders are born, not made. A recent DNA test shows that Titan is Frodo's son.

Little Fifi is now more than 40 years old and has her own family. Gremlin, also a toddler during Goodall's historic period at Gombe, is grown and has a new set of twins, Golden and Glitter.

The documentary, more than anything else, is an accurate portrayal of chimpanzee behavior. While there is much to cover in only 40 minutes, the film manages to capture the essence of four decades of research.

''I do hope this opens the world of the chimpanzees to a new generation of young people,'' Goodall says. ''But it is also an amazing experience for people who grew up knowing those chimps. It gives me a very good feeling.''