JANE GOODALL The Jane Goodall Institute
Louis Leakey believed that he could learn more about the probable behavior of our earliest Stone Age ancestors from a study of the chimpanzees in the wild. He argued that behavior common to modern chimpanzees and humans was probably also present in a common ancestor millions of years ago. Leakey is well vindicated, because most human evolution textbooks describe the chimpanzee, and specifically the Gombe chimpanzee, behavior in some measure.

Scientific attitude has changed towards these relatives of ours, the nonhuman primates. In the 1960s, the strict ethnological science of Europe did not believe that animals had personalities. Only humans had personalities. Animals were presumed to have no ability for rational thought and problem solving. The worst sin of anthropomorphism was that animals be credited with any kind of emotion. It is fascinating that since 1960, attitudes have softened and there is no longer a passion for reductionism. People are much more prepared to look at the societies of nonhuman animals and see complexity and individuality. Discussing emotions is usually acceptable if it is done in the right way. The animal mind is now a popular study of many graduate students. The Gombe stream is a 30-square-mile area. It stretches for 10 miles along the shore of Lake Tanganyika, a steep, hilly country, falling down forested slopes from the Rift Escarpment. That area is home to approximately 100 chimpanzees, who have provided us with a wealth of information about primate behavior, including feeding behavior and diet selection, among many others. The main study community of Gombe consists of some 50 individuals — adults, adolescents, and infants. Male chimpanzees are more overtly aggressive and fight more than females. But because they are ordered in a dominance hierarchy, where males know their positions relative to each other and are dominant to all females, disputes within a community can often be settled by a threatening posture or gesture. A male will bristle his hair, bunch his lips in a ferocious scowl, swagger, brandish sticks and so on. After some kind of aggression, the victim even though fearful of the more dominant aggressor is likely to approach with some kind of submissive gesture, such as a crouch. In response, the aggressor is likely to reach out with a reassurance behavior such as patting, touching, or even kissing and embracing. And so, social harmony is quickly restored to the group, even after quite serious aggression. Nonverbal communication patterns of the chimpanzees almost uncannily resemble some human postures and gestures and tend to occur in the same type of context. A nervous female may reach her hand out for reassurance and the male may gently calm her by patting her hand. An adult male may be greeted with a kiss when he joins a young female. Friendly physical contact in chimpanzee society maintains friendships and improves bad relationships. Males will spend long hours peacefully grooming each other, but if two chimpanzees do not like each other, they will not groom. Many of these patterns are inborn; but a young chimpanzee raised in social isolation although he may use these postures and gestures, will do so in inappropriate contexts. A wild female chimpanzee gives birth approximately every 5 years and usually has her first baby when she is between 11 and 13 years of age. Age of first birth is directly related to body weight, which may be correlated with nutrition. Young chimpanzees in captivity, consistently fed a nutritious diet, can have babies as young as 7 or even 6 years of age. Usually one baby is born, but twins do occur. Childhood is a time of much activity and a great deal of that activity is play. Young chimpanzees are very well tolerated by other non-related adults in the community. Infants up to 4 years old can take great liberties with their elders. As they move toward adolescence, they become more cautious, particularly in their dealings with adult high-ranking males. Young males must be especially cautious. Food is plentiful for most of the year in this part of Africa. Chimpanzees are omnivores but the greatest proportion of the wild chimpanzee diet is fruits, which change in type, quantity, and nutritional quality according to the season. Many of the big forest trees have a pattern of fruiting every second year. But sometimes trees fail to fruit and then the chimpanzees lose weight apparently due to decreased food supply. Chimpanzees in the wild spend a certain amount of time feeding on one type of food, and then, they will usually move on and feed on something else. The variety of their diet is impressive — over 600 different foods are eaten in some areas. As well as fruit, they eat leaves, nuts, shoots, stems, bark, blossoms, seeds, insects, bird eggs and meat (Figures 1a,b). Based on observations of wild chimpanzees, it is clearly preferable for the diets of captive animals to be varied, so they do not get bored with their food. As the United States was drawn into the international conflict, all sorts of items used domestically were in short supply, and many had to be reserved for military use. And because fewer people were left to serve in the productive parts of our economy, fewer people had to do more with less. Fish oil supplies that had been used to provide vitamin A in both human and animal diets were diminished. Skim milk that had been incorporated extensively into animal diets for protein, minerals, and vitamins was diverted for human use. Byproducts of meat processing, such as tankage and meat scraps, that were traditional sources of supplemental protein in animal diets often were not available. As a consequence, alternative sources of protein, minerals, and vitamins had to be identified. Fortunately, the nutritionists and biochemists working on minerals, vitamins, and amino acids provided information vital for this purpose, and just in time. It was soon apparent that corn and soybean meal appropriately supplemented with minerals and vitamins could efficiently and economically replace the previously used more complex diets containing animal byproducts. The publications of CAN, during the 1940s, related to the problems of the time. War emergency plans for feeding cattle, poultry, and swine were devised by nutritionists who served on CAN. Because of phosphorus shortages, alternative sources were being used in animal diets, and a fluoride hazard in those alternatives was identified and quantified. In addition, the need for supplemental iodine was established as animal proteins were dropped from animal diets. Through the work of nutritionists serving as the nation’s experts on CAN, the U.S. population was assured that the problem of restricted animal feed supplies was by no means insurmountable. In the middle to latter part of the 1940s, CAN published recommended nutrient allowances for diets of swine, poultry, beef cattle, dairy cattle, sheep, and horses. These recommended nutrient allowances included subjectively established safety factors and were intended to ensure that minimal nutrient requirements would be met under any circumstances. In a number of instances, minimal requirements were unknown, and nutrient allowances were based upon successful practical experience. Feed formulators tended to add safety factors of their own, and since judgments differed in this regard, final products were appreciably different in their nutrient concentrations. In the late 1940s, CAN concluded that the most appropriate way to express a nutrient requirement was as the minimal dietary concentration required to support normal performance of the most demanding function. Nutrient requirements were commonly established using purified diets. Unfortunately, nutrients in natural-ingredient diets are not usually as available as they are in purified diets. Thus, it was necessary, when possible, to provide some estimate of expected nutrient bioavailability in natural dietary ingredients. Since 1953, the NRC Nutrient Requirement Series presents nutrient requirements that are supported by scientific evidence or indicates that requirements are estimates. NRC CAN publications have now been published on nutrient requirements of swine, poultry, beef cattle, dairy cattle, sheep, horses, mink and foxes, rabbits, goats, dogs, cats, laboratory animals, fish, and nonhuman primates. Included among the laboratory animals are rats, mice, gerbils, guinea pigs, hamsters, and voles. Partial requirement data are provided on nine species of fish. Nutrient requirements of nonhuman primates present a major challenge because there are over 200 species to consider. Individual publications in the Nutrient Requirement Series on food-producing animals have been regularly updated for many years. For example, there have been 10 editions of Nutrient Requirements of Swine from 1944 to 1998. The length of this report has grown from 10 to 189 pages and the references from 69 to 1,524. The first edition included recommended allowances for total digestible nutrients (TDN), crude protein, calcium, phosphorus, sodium, potassium, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, vitamin B6, carotene, vitamin A, and vitamin D (National Research Council, 1944). Minimum requirements for these nutrients (except TDN) plus chloride, iron, copper, manganese, iodine, selenium, vitamin E, vitamin K, biotin, folacin, vitamin B12, ten essential amino acids, linoleic acid, digestible energy, and metabolizable energy are included in the 10th edition (National Research Council, 1998). Publications in the Nutrient Requirement Series and CAN reports on feed composition, vitamin and mineral tolerances, energy terms, nutrients and toxins in water, selenium, and chromium have had a major influence upon the productivity and health of animals on the farms and in the homes, laboratories and zoos of America. These reports provide information and guidelines that not only are used by animal nutritionists but also have been adopted by federal and state regulatory agencies. Some of the requirement reports now provide computer-based mathematical models to predict feed intake and growth rates by melding nutrient requirements with desired animal performance. These are major advances in animal nutrition, but prediction models must be based on a foundation of substantial scientific data. Mathematical equations are not a substitute for the basic information necessary to develop them, and the animal nutrition community is actively engaged in identifying and producing the needed data. Throughout its history, the service of nutritionists on CAN has been pro bono. Scientists are selected by their peers, based on demonstrated professional qualifications, judgment, and ethics. They come from universities, industry, and government. In total, 117 scientists have served on the Committee, not counting the hundreds that have served on various CAN subcommittees and task forces. There are typically 10 to 15 members of CAN, serving staggered 3-year terms. Since 1941, there have been 12 CAN chairpersons. The collective effort of the wide array of scientists and nutritionists who have been appointed to serve on CAN committees and subcommittees has contributed invaluably to the social, economic, and physical well-being of Americans throughout CAN’s history. This effort also has provided information essential to the welfare, productivity, and protection of domestic and wild animal species. A former NRC staff officer, Selma Baron, may have said it best —