The Excitement of Science

In the Shadow of Man is a story but it is intended as a work of science. Jane Goodall may have been inspired to do her scientific work through a lifelong love of the chimpanzee, and the book may consider her affection for the chimpanzees she observed and aided, but the original purpose of Goodall's work was to observe the chimpanzee in the wild and learn as much as she possibly could about them.

Goodall's earliest moments of discovery come to her as great joys, and while they are great joys, they are great joys because they are scientific discoveries of great importance. Jane Goodall was the first primatologist to definitely prove that chimpanzees could make tools. Until that time, most primatologists, and accordingly, most people who gave the issue any thought, believed tool-making was unique to humans.

Goodall also discovered that chimpanzees are omnivorous...