A Check off my Bucket List

In the winter of 1986 one of the people who I most hoped to meet one day, Dian Fossey, had just been murdered in Rwanda. About a week or two later I interviewed Lisa Stevens, the woman who for over 30 years held the curator position I now hold at the Smithsonian's National Zoo in DC. Then a decade later in 1996 I first met Jane Goodall at a garden party in Georgetown. She wrote "Follow your dreams!" in my original 1960s copy of her book In the Shadow of Man and I went on to do exactly that, spending over 7 years working in Borneo with wild orangutans after a field season working with gibbons in Thailand. Over time I became increasingly allergic to a family of trees frequently nested in and eaten by wild orangutans, so I ended up working in the zoo field and came full circle when I moved back to DC to work as the Zoo's primate curator.

I got to check off an item on my bucket list this morning - have another opportunity to talk to Jane Goodall, only this time have time for a real discussion. Not only did this happen after she gave a talk to a group of children at the Think Tank, she asked to meet and talk with my staff and I got to take her on a behind-the-scenes of the Great Ape House. As we were leaving the first building for the second, 3 of our orangutans crossed the O-line, causing Jane Goodall to get out of our golf cart and watch them cross over the public path, much to the delight of several zoo visitors.

Jane Goodall talking to a group of kids for a private JGI event held in the Think Tank. I certainly hope I look this good when I am 81 years old. I think she is aging in reverse... 

With Jane Goodall, Mr. H, and several of my keepers, researchers, and volunteers

Jane Goodall was extremely gracious and delightful to talk to in this situation where she was not overly rushed and could really talk with the staff and meet our apes.

Although chimpanzees are not among the ape species we have at the National Zoo, we do have a little sculpture garden across from the Think Tank with several sculptures of (for some reason all male) chimpanzees. This morning when we went over to wipe off the sculptures in anticipation of Jane Goodall's visit, we found that each of the sculptures had been given what appeared to be large offerings of bamboo: