Author: Bill Wallauer

An extremely rare event has just taken place in Gombe National Park. For the second time in Gombe history, an olive baboon has given birth to twins. Until this spring, baboon twins have only been seen once at Gombe since Dr. Jane Goodall’s arrival in 1960.  Since 1967, we have recorded 271 different females who have given birth,  but only one female was observed to produce twins.  The first twins were born in 1980, both males, of whom one survived only three weeks; his brother did well until leaving his mother’s group (which is how baboons maintain genetic diversity), at the normal transfer age of 7 years. This amounts to one pair of twins in 1,200 live births,…

While many of us are home and without access to outdoor spaces or materials to grow, (and perhaps a good portion of us have never grown anything ever before), we thought it would be useful to share some tips and tricks for sustainable at home gardening! Don’t be intimidated when we say ‘gardening’, growing veggies and other plants from home is for everyone! This handy outline of quick ways to repurpose existing vegetables to regrow them at home and produce seedlings will mean that you may never have to visit the grocery store for vegetables again! Any of these below…

Isn’t it wonderful when all the stars align? On days like this, from the moment you wake up, the day just keeps getting better and better. It is a dream in itself to sleep on the shores of Lake Tanganyika in Western Tanzania. At dawn, a chorus of birds blends with the soft sound of waves lapping at the pebbly shoreline and crickets chirping. This very special place is where Dr. Jane Goodall first came to know and understand the wild chimpanzees of Gombe. 60 years later, it is still one of the most incredible places on Earth. August 23,…

You might be familiar with Gombe as the famed location of Dr. Jane Goodall’s earliest discoveries on chimpanzee behavior and the 60 years of ongoing research through the Jane Goodall Institute – but did you know that it is home to a wonderful variety of other species as well? This Holiday Season, we’re celebrating 12 incredible animals that call Gombe home. Learn more about them and sing along! 12 wagtails wagging Wagtails are ground-feeding birds that feed on insects, and get their name from their near constant tail wagging! 11 baboons playing Baboons in Gombe have been studied for almost…

In 1960, Jane Goodall transformed our understanding of what differentiates humans from the rest of the animal kingdom through the observation that chimpanzees make and use tools. This groundbreaking moment has been referenced time and time again, but what can we learn from Jane’s earliest findings and writings on the subject, and what we continue to discover today? To set the stage, previous to Jane’s research, non-human animals were presumed to be functioning on an almost mechanical basis and their behavior was thought to be based on ‘preprogrammed’ instinct. In 1875 in his speech to the Royal Institution of Great Britain,  Colonel A Lane Fox, President of…

Gremlin, her three adult daughters, and their offspring, have dominated the female hierarchy of the Kasakela community in Gombe, Tanzania, in recent years. It is not uncommon to find two, three, or even all four of these females and their families foraging together peacefully through Kakombe Valley in the heart of the Kasakelan’s range. With such a numerical advantage over other families in the community, it is a risk to challenge any member of the powerful and ever growing ‘G’ family. But that wasn’t always the case. From the time I began my work in Gombe National Park over 25…

Even within the relatively secure borders of Gombe National Park, the safety of the chimps and other wildlife can be threatened by the presence of human activity and settlements near the park boundary.  Encroachment for firewood, hunting, and mushrooms have been an problem in the past, but with the conservation and humanitarian efforts of JGI Tanzania, these issues have decreased in recent years. However, people still own dogs and pets and to protect their homes. These local dogs can form packs that can run together both outside and occasionally inside of the park. So what happens when these two worlds…

Last January, I traveled to Tanzania with National Geographic presenter Justin Hall to shoot a segment for Explorer about the spiritual nature of chimpanzees and the blurry line between the emotional capacities of non-human animals and humans.  In the pieces’ introduction, author and scientist Barbara King notes that “We see examples of empathy, imagination, and meaning making in the animal world.”  I couldn’t agree more. This segment was inspired by the early observations of chimpanzee waterfall displays and rain dances by Dr. Jane Goodall, who wrote of these behaviors over 40 years ago.  Some of my earliest recordings (and most…

Dr. Jane Goodall had a single dream: to study wildlife in Africa. When she was 26 years old, she was given an opportunity, by a innovative scientist named Louis Leakey, to achieve this dream in a place called Gombe. Gombe, Tanzania, has since Dr. Goodall’s studies been the home of ongoing behavioral, biological, conservation and other research on wild chimpanzees (Learn more about Gombe here). Many exceptional minds have passed through Gombe, providing their own imprint on this significant location, leaving with a reshaped imagination. Bill Wallauer, a man with his eyes on the pulse of the world as a wildlife filmmaker…

Dr. Jane Goodall had a single dream: to study wildlife in Africa. When she was 26 years old, she was given an opportunity, by a innovative scientist named Louis Leakey, to achieve this dream in a place called Gombe. Gombe, Tanzania, has since Dr. Goodall’s studies been the home of ongoing behavioral, biological, conservation and other research on wild chimpanzees (Learn more about Gombe here). Many exceptional minds have passed through Gombe, providing their own imprint on this significant location, leaving with a reshaped imagination. Bill Wallauer, a man with his eyes on the pulse of the world as a wildlife filmmaker…