Description
Book SynopsisThis book brings together a range of chimpanzee experts who tell powerful personal stories about their lives and careers. It features some of the world’s preeminent primatologists—including Jane Goodall and Frans de Waal—as well as representatives of a new generation from varied backgrounds.
Trade ReviewChimpanzees sit in the Venn diagram overlap of topics that are intellectually compelling and those that are emotionally irresistible.
Chimpanzee Memoirs shows that it can be fascinating to study the people who have devoted their lives to their fascination with chimps. These superb essays reveal the varying backgrounds that can prompt this obsession, and show that slogging through underbrush out in the field, and battling to save chimps from extinction can both constitute heroism. This is a great read. -- Robert M. Sapolsky, John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn Professor, Stanford University
This compelling and inspiring collection of memoirs should thrill and delight all animal-loving readers. The editors have selected a range of tales from the most famous primatologist of all—Jane Goodall—to little-known local African researchers. Each person tells us how they came to study chimpanzees and how their research turned to passion and then grave concern as chimpanzee populations across Africa dramatically declined. If you’re not worried about the future of our closest relatives, you will be after you finish this volume of loving, heartfelt memoirs. And you’ll want to do all you can to help them. -- Virginia Morell, author of the
New York Times best seller
Animal Wise: How We Know Animals Think and FeelChimpanzee Memoirs is an invaluable collection of essays by a who's who of researchers who know these amazing nonhuman beings in astonishing detail. Reading these pieces, which come straight from the authors' hands and hearts, is an inspirational experience that explains what they did, why they did it, what it all means, and most importantly, what still needs to be done in the future to give these remarkable great apes the best lives possible in an increasingly human-dominated world. I hope it enjoys a global audience because the numerous lessons that are offered can be applied to many different species who depend on our goodwill for their very survival. -- Marc Bekoff, University of Colorado, coauthor of
A Dog's World: Imagining the Lives of Dogs in a World Without HumansCompelling and evocative...Highly recommended. * Choice *
A rich collection of primary sources not only for historians of primatology and animal behavior but also for scholars of the history of fieldwork and the politics of African wildlife conservation. * H-Sci-Med-Tech *
A well organized collection of essays that are accessible and interesting to read. * Sharon the Librarian *
I’d choose to give
Chimpanzee Memoirs, edited by Stephen Ross and Lydia Hopper (Columbia University Press), in which fellow primatologists convey the joy and challenge of working with animals as intelligent as chimpanzees.” * Frans de Waal, “the best books to give as presents this Christmas,” The Guardian *
Table of ContentsForeword
Acknowledgments
1. Jane Goodall
2. Lilly Ajarova
3. Richard Wrangham
4. John Mitani
5. Caroline Asiimwe
6. Anne Pusey
7. Tetsuro Matsuzawa
8. Christophe Boesch
9. Andrew Whiten
10. Melissa Emery Thompson
11. David Koni
12. Tatyana Humle
13. Brian Hare
14. Raven Jackson-Jewett
15. Frans de Waal
16. Elizabeth Lonsdorf
Afterword
Suggested Reading
