Chapter 1, Beginnings, Chapter 2, Early Days Summary and Analysis

In the Shadow of Man is the extraordinary tale of the famous scientist Jane Goodall's observations of chimpanzees in the wild. The story opens at dawn, with Goodall on a mountain hike in the Gombe Stream Chimpanzee Reserve, trying to observe chimpanzees. While watching a troop of monkeys, Goodall hears a young chimpanzee screaming; after looking for the source of the scream for some time, she observes four chimpanzees. She carefully tries to approach them for a better look.

By the time she reached a close spot, the chimpanzees were gone but she saw two male chimpanzees staring at her twenty-yards away; the chimps did not run and they started to groom each other; she then sees a female and a child with them. Goodall had spent six months attempting to overcome the...