成為珍.古道爾

Most of us don’t enter upon our life’s destiny at any neatly discernible time. Jane Goodall did. On the morning of July 14th， 1960， she stepped onto a pebble beach along a remote stretch of the east shore of Lake Tanganyika. It was her first arrival at what was then called the Gombe Stream Game Reserve， a small protected area that had been established by the British colonial government back in 1943. She had brought a tent， a few tin plates， a cup without a handle， a shoddy pair of binoculars， an African cook named Dominic， and—as a companion， at the insistence of people who feared for her safety in the wilds of pre-independence Tanganyika—her mother. She had come to study chimpanzees. Or anyway， to try. Casual observers expected her to fail. One person， the paleontologist Louis Leakey， who had recruited her to the task up inNairobi， believed she might succeed.

Jane and her mother spent the afternoon putting their camp in order. Then， around 5 p.m.， somebody reported having seen a chimpanzee. “So off we went，” Jane wrote later that night in her journal， “and there was the chimp.” She had gotten only a distant， indistinct glimpse. “It moved away as we drew level with the crowd of fishermen gazing at it， and， though we climbed the neighbouring slope， we didn’t see it again.” But she had noticed， and recorded， some bent branches flattened together in a nearby tree: a chimp nest. That datum， that first nest， was the starting point of what has become one of the most significant ongoing sagas in modern field biology: the continuous， minutely detailed， 50-year study， by Jane Goodall and others， of the behavior of the chimps of Gombe.

Young Goodall had no scientific credentials when she began， not even an undergraduate degree. She was a bright， motivated secretarial school graduate from England who had always loved animals and dreamed of studying them in Africa. She came from a family of strong women， little money， and absent men. During the early weeks at Gombe she struggled， groping for a methodology， losing time to a fever that was probably malaria， hiking many miles in the forested mountains， and glimpsing few chimpanzees， until an elderly male with grizzled chinwhiskers extended to her a tentative， startling gesture of trust. She named the old chimp David Greybeard.

The issue of how to study chimpanzees， and of what can be inferred from behavioral observations， has faced Jane Goodall since early in her career. It began coming into focus after her first field season， when Louis Leakey informed Jane of his next bright idea for shaping her life: He would get her into a Ph.D. program in ethology at Cambridge University. Once enrolled at Cambridge， she found herself crosswise with departmental elders and the prevailing certitudes of the field. “It was a bit shocking to be told I’d done everything wrong. Everything.” By then she had 15 months of field data from Gombe， most of it gathered through patient observation of individuals she knew by monikers such as David Greybeard and Fifi. Such personification didn’t play well at Cambridge; toimpute individuality and emotion to nonhuman animals was anthropomorphism， not ethology. “Fortunately， I thought back to my first teacher， when I was a child， who taught me that that wasn’t true.” Her first teacher had been her dog， Rusty. “You cannot share your life in a meaningful way with any kind of animal with a reasonably well-developed brain and not realize that animals have personalities.” She pushed back against the prevailing view and on February 9th， 1966， she became Dr. Jane Goodall. In 1968 the little game reserve underwent its own graduation， becoming Tanzania’s Gombe National Park. By then Jane was receiving research funding from the National Geographic Society. She was married and a mother and famous worldwide， owing in part to her articles for this magazine and her comely， forceful presence in a televised film， Miss Goodall and the Wild Chimpanzees. She had institutionalized her field camp， in order to fund and perpetuate it， as the Gombe Stream Research Center. In 1971 she published In the Shadow of Man， her account of the early Gombe studies and adventures， which became a best seller. Around the same time， she began hosting students and graduate researchers to help with chimp-data collection and other research at Gombe.

Impelled by broader imperatives， Jane ended her career as a field biologist in 1986， just after publication of her great scientific book， The Chimpanzees of Gombe. Since then she has lived as an advocate， a traveling lecturer， a woman driven by a sense of public mission. Her first cause， which arose from her years at Gombe， was improving the grim treatment inflicted on chimpanzees held in many medical research labs. Combining her toughness and moral outrage with her personal charm and willingness to interact graciously， she achieved some negotiated successes. She also founded sanctuaries for chimps who could be freed fromcaptivity， including many orphaned by the bushmeat trade. That work led to her concerns about human conduct toward other species. She established a program called Jane Goodall’s Roots Shoots， encouraging young people around the world to become active in projects that promote greater concern for animals， the environment， and the human community.

She now spends about 300 days a year on the road， giving countless interviews and schoolroom talks， lecturing in big venues， meeting with government officials， raising money to turn the wheels of the Jane Goodall Institute. Occasionally she sneaks away into a forest or onto a prairie， sometimes with a few friends， to watch chimps or sandhill cranes or black-footed ferrets and to restore her energy and sanity. It’s important to remember that the meaning of Gombe， after half a century， is bigger than Jane Goodall’s life and work. But make no mistake: Her life and work have been very， very big.

我們大多數(shù)人對(duì)于“踏入命定軌跡”的時(shí)刻沒(méi)有一個(gè)截然清晰的概念，但在珍·古道爾的生命中卻有這樣的轉(zhuǎn)折點(diǎn)。1960年7月14日的清晨，她踏上了坦噶尼喀湖東岸一處偏僻的卵石灘，這是珍·古道爾第一次來(lái)到這塊當(dāng)時(shí)被稱(chēng)為“岡貝河野生動(dòng)物保護(hù)區(qū)”的區(qū)域，這一小塊保護(hù)區(qū)是英國(guó)殖民政府于1943年設(shè)立的。她隨身攜帶了一頂帳篷，幾只錫碟子，一個(gè)沒(méi)有把手的杯子，一副劣質(zhì)雙筒望遠(yuǎn)鏡，一名叫多尼米克的非洲廚子，以及大家因擔(dān)憂她在尚未獲得獨(dú)立的坦噶尼喀野外的安全問(wèn)題而一直勸說(shuō)她要帶上的一位同伴——她的母親。珍·古道爾此行是為了研究黑猩猩，更準(zhǔn)確點(diǎn)說(shuō)，是嘗試去研究。無(wú)關(guān)的觀察者都覺(jué)得她會(huì)失敗，不過(guò)有一位名叫路易斯·李基的古生物學(xué)家相信她可能會(huì)成功，他曾招募珍參加過(guò)他在內(nèi)羅畢的考古工作。

珍和母親花了一個(gè)下午的時(shí)間才將營(yíng)地建好。等到下午大約五點(diǎn)鐘的時(shí)候，有人報(bào)告說(shuō)剛看到了一只黑猩猩。“于是我們馬上就出發(fā)了，”珍當(dāng)晚在自己的日記中這樣寫(xiě)道，“那里真的有只黑猩猩。”當(dāng)時(shí)她只能從遠(yuǎn)處模糊地看了一眼。“當(dāng)我們走近那群正盯著黑猩猩在看的漁民時(shí)，黑猩猩早已溜走了，雖然我們爬到了附近的一個(gè)斜坡上，但并沒(méi)有找到它的蹤跡。”盡管如此，珍還是發(fā)現(xiàn)了附近一棵樹(shù)上有一些彎曲的樹(shù)枝被鋪平在一起:這是一處黑猩猩的巢穴，她對(duì)此作了記錄。那段數(shù)據(jù)，那第一個(gè)巢穴，正是現(xiàn)代野外生物學(xué)中一段經(jīng)久不衰的重要傳奇的起點(diǎn):珍·古道爾及其后來(lái)者開(kāi)始對(duì)岡貝黑猩猩的行為進(jìn)行連續(xù)、詳盡細(xì)致、長(zhǎng)達(dá)五十年的研究。

剛開(kāi)始時(shí)，年輕的古道爾在科研方面并無(wú)任何科班底子，甚至連本科學(xué)位都沒(méi)有。聰明而有干勁的珍畢業(yè)于英格蘭一所文秘學(xué)校，一直熱愛(ài)動(dòng)物，總是夢(mèng)想去非洲進(jìn)行實(shí)地研究。她自幼家境貧寒，家中沒(méi)有男人，全靠女人當(dāng)家。剛到岡貝的頭幾個(gè)星期里，珍一直在努力摸索研究黑猩猩的方法，曾因感染瘧疾而發(fā)燒以致浪費(fèi)了一段時(shí)間，也曾在森林密布的山林中跋涉數(shù)百里后瞥見(jiàn)了幾只黑猩猩，直到一只下巴胡須已變成灰白的黑猩猩開(kāi)始嘗試對(duì)她投以信任的回應(yīng)，事情才開(kāi)始有所改觀。她給這只老黑猩猩起名叫灰胡子大衛(wèi)。

如何研究黑猩猩以及如何能從行為觀察中推斷出真相這些問(wèn)題自考察初期便一直困擾著珍·古道爾。但隨著第一個(gè)野外考察期的結(jié)束，這些問(wèn)題的答案慢慢地清晰起來(lái)。這時(shí)路易斯·李基將一個(gè)想法告知珍——這改變了她的命運(yùn)——他說(shuō)準(zhǔn)備把她招入劍橋大學(xué)攻讀動(dòng)物行為學(xué)的博士學(xué)位。入讀劍橋以后，在專(zhuān)業(yè)前輩和他們對(duì)野外考察的傳統(tǒng)信念面前，珍·古道爾很快發(fā)現(xiàn)自己顯得格格不入。“讓我震驚的是，有人告訴我，說(shuō)我之前做的所有工作都是錯(cuò)的。所有的一切。”當(dāng)時(shí)她已經(jīng)在岡貝考察了15個(gè)月，收集了大量的野外數(shù)據(jù)，這些數(shù)據(jù)大多是通過(guò)對(duì)某些黑猩猩個(gè)體的耐心觀察而得到的，例如灰胡子大衛(wèi)和菲菲——這些都是她給起的名字。但這樣把猩猩人格化并沒(méi)有博得劍橋?qū)W究們的歡心，在他們眼中，為非人類(lèi)的動(dòng)物賦予個(gè)性和情感屬于擬人論的研究范疇，與動(dòng)物行為學(xué)毫不相干。“幸運(yùn)的是，在我很小的時(shí)候，我的第一位老師就告訴我，這種看法是完全錯(cuò)誤的。”實(shí)際上，她所說(shuō)的老師指的是她的小狗拉斯蒂。“如果你沒(méi)意識(shí)到動(dòng)物也有個(gè)性，那你是不可能跟那些大腦發(fā)育已初具水平的動(dòng)物真正相知相處的。”最終，珍·古道爾以實(shí)際行動(dòng)對(duì)這些傳統(tǒng)觀點(diǎn)予以了回?fù)簦?966年2月9日，她正式成為了珍·古道爾博士。

1968年，原本小小的岡貝野生動(dòng)物保護(hù)區(qū)正式升級(jí)為坦桑尼亞岡貝國(guó)家公園。當(dāng)時(shí)，珍已經(jīng)得到國(guó)家地理學(xué)會(huì)的研究資助。珍在《國(guó)家地理》雜志上發(fā)表的數(shù)篇文章，以及在電視上播出的電影《古道爾小姐和野生黑猩猩》中那清秀且執(zhí)著的形象讓當(dāng)時(shí)已經(jīng)結(jié)婚生子的她譽(yù)滿全球。她在之前野外考察營(yíng)地的基礎(chǔ)上設(shè)立了岡貝河研究中心，以此尋求研究經(jīng)費(fèi)來(lái)使之得以延續(xù)。1971年，她出版了暢銷(xiāo)書(shū)《黑猩猩在召喚》，描述了自己早期在岡貝叢林的研究和冒險(xiǎn)經(jīng)歷。幾乎是在同一時(shí)期，她開(kāi)始召集學(xué)生以及其他研究學(xué)者前往岡貝，幫助收集黑猩猩的相關(guān)數(shù)據(jù)和展開(kāi)其他研究。

在出版了一本偉大的科學(xué)著作《岡貝黑猩猩》之后，越來(lái)越大的責(zé)任感促使珍在1986年結(jié)束了自己的野外生物學(xué)家生涯。從那以后，心中強(qiáng)烈的公共使命感驅(qū)使她成為了一位動(dòng)物維權(quán)人士，四處演講。在岡貝的那些歲月讓珍決心去改變黑猩猩在很多醫(yī)學(xué)研究實(shí)驗(yàn)室中遭受殘酷對(duì)待的境況。她堅(jiān)定干練，義憤辭嚴(yán)，又充滿個(gè)人魅力，談吐大方優(yōu)雅，她把兩者結(jié)合得恰到好處，從而在談判交涉中取得了不少成果。珍還設(shè)立了若干個(gè)保護(hù)區(qū)，專(zhuān)門(mén)收養(yǎng)那些從囚籠中被解救出來(lái)的黑猩猩，以及那些因叢林野生動(dòng)物肉品交易而淪為孤兒的小黑猩猩們。這些工作讓珍開(kāi)始關(guān)注人類(lèi)行為對(duì)其他生物所造成的傷害，她設(shè)立了一個(gè)名為“珍·古道爾的根與芽”的公益項(xiàng)目，專(zhuān)門(mén)鼓勵(lì)世界各地的年輕人積極投身于環(huán)保，關(guān)注動(dòng)物、環(huán)境和人類(lèi)群落這樣的項(xiàng)目當(dāng)中。

現(xiàn)在，珍每年有300天的時(shí)間是奔波于各地，做無(wú)數(shù)次的訪談和學(xué)校講座，在大禮堂演講，與政府官員會(huì)面，為珍·古道爾研究會(huì)籌款以維持運(yùn)營(yíng)。偶爾，珍也會(huì)和一些朋友溜到森林里或草原上，去觀察黑猩猩、沙丘鶴或黑爪雪貂，借此振作精神，恢復(fù)活力。歷經(jīng)了半個(gè)世紀(jì)以后，岡貝的意義已然超越了珍·古道爾個(gè)人的生活和工作經(jīng)歷。但毫無(wú)疑問(wèn)的是，這位女性的生活和工作無(wú)愧于“偉大”二字!