From the collection: The Chimpanzees I Love

Jane Goodall might be a household name for most grownups, thanks to her pioneering work with chimpanzees and more recent efforts at habitat preservation. But many kids don't know the Goodall story and will love this chance to hit the ground in Tanzania and learn about the remarkable scientist and her beloved chimp friends. With dozens of vintage photographs, Goodall recounts her early research in Gombe National Park, including a recap of her childhood and how she came to know Louis Leakey and first enter the bush. With clear and careful prose, Goodall explains her findings about chimp communities and communication, the role of hierarchies, and what sort of threats chimpanzees face today. Best of all, Goodall's account always keeps curious young readers in mind, even relating some of her mistakes, such as when she became too close to her subjects and interfered with her own research.

New DVD : Jane Goodall's Return to Gombe

World-renowned primatologist Jane Goodall makes her annual RETURN TO GOMBE in this exciting and somewhat heartbreaking visit to the chimpanzee research station she made famous. It seems a revolution has broken out among her favorite group of chimps and its brutal and bullying leader, Frodo, has been overthrown. With a power struggle imminent among the other chimps, Jane searches for Frodo and reminisces about the groundbreaking research, thoughts, beliefs and emotions she has invested in these wild chimpanzees and protecting primates around the world. RETURN TO GOMBE makes for a fascinating and unforgettable journey.

New DVD : Nature: Chimpanzees

Learn more about these creatures from the wild, who really aren't that different from us! Program 1: Jane Goodall’s Wild Chimpanzees - Jane Goodall provides privileged access to an absorbing family saga in the wilds of Tanzania. Observe the family’s complex day-to-day life through intimate communications and relationships. Program 2: Monkey in the Mirror - Chimps and primates use tools, language, politics and even culture. How does their intelligence compare to our own? This program investigates the answers in both the laboratory and the wild.

New DVD : Nature: Chimpanzees - An Unnatural History

Nature, the eight-time Emmy-winning PBS series, kicked off its 25th season with this powerful episode. In 1959, the United States Air Force captured dozens of baby chimpanzees in Africa, transporting them to Alamogordo, New Mexico, where they and their offspring were to endure a grueling life as the ultimate human stand-ins. From experiments in space travel and high-velocity crash tests, to pharmaceutical testing and hepatitis and AIDS research, to roles on the silver and small screens, these original Air Force chimpanzees and others that followed gave their lives to benefit humankind. Now, a few extraordinary people are working to give those lives back. Emmy Award-winning producer and director Allison Argo (Extraordinary Dogs) narrates this compelling and powerful program that witnesses the efforts of rescuers at sanctuaries like Fauna Foundation, Save the Chimps, and Center for Great Apes to see that the traumatized residents they have saved from a life of confinement and suffering can finally be allowed to live and feel like chimps.

New DVD : Jane Goodall's Wild Chimpanzees

Did you know that chimpanzees and humans have 98 percent of their DNA in common? You will after watching this absorbing 75-minute (including extras) documentary, featuring and partially narrated by renowned researcher Jane Goodall, who's been on the chimps' case for more than four decades. We see these African apes on the ground and in trees, playing, grooming, teaching, even killing one another. The scenes of them "fishing" for termites and ants using a stick for a pole make for extraordinary viewing; indeed, the film's principal message is that they and we are very much alike. And while the small screen can't capture the full majesty of what began as an IMAX film, one can sense the almost palpable three-dimensionality of the original. The DVD is also loaded with bonus features, including a 15-minute behind-the-scenes look at the filmmaking process and more.

New DVD: Chimps : So Like Us

For three decades, Jane Goodall has studied the chimpanzees of Gombe National Park in Tanzania. There, living simply amid the lush greenery on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, she has become the world s foremost authority on man s closest relative. In CHIMPS: SO LIKE US, Goodall provides a glimpse into this special universe, sharing her vision and passionate concern for her simian neighbors.

The film opens gently in the quiet forest, where, with Goodall as guide and interpreter, the chimpanzees' remarkable similarity to humans is revealed before the camera. Like humans, chimps live in family units, make tools, eat meat and express complex emotions. The distinction between man and animal blurs as scenes of love, jealousy, friendship and war are played out within chimpanzee society.

Yet, chimps' genetic closeness to man is also their curse. In explosive counterpoint to the chimpanzees' balanced life in their natural habitat, the film reveals the shocking conditions under which many chimps suffer in poorly maintained research labs. With uncompromising conviction, the film argues the case for the chimpanzees' right to live in freedom in their natural habitat and for humane treatment when in captivity.

Damrosch L!brary Adopts a Chimpanzee from the World Wildlife Fund

One of the most well known apes, the chimpanzee lives in the forests and savannahs of equatorial Africa. Highly intelligent, chimpanzees hunt cooperatively and use tools, such as branches and sticks, to forage for food. These omnivores survive on a diet of ripe fruits, young leaves, stems, roots, seeds, bark and insects. Once found in 25 African countries, chimpanzees are now extinct in three or four and are nearing extinction in others due to deforestation and commercial hunting for bush meat. All four subspecies of chimpanzee are endangered.
The plush toy and the adoption certificate.

And from the library's collection: On the occasion of Goodall's 40th anniversary of groundbreaking research with the chimpanzees of Gombe, this beautifully illustrated volume traces her work from its singular beginnings to the Jane Goodall Institute's present-day international activities. 65 full-color and 30 duotone photos.