Through A Window Sparknotes

In the book Through a Window by Jane Goodall, Jane describes the lifestyle of chimpanzees and her view of them. During the book, it discusses many different characters including characters such as Fifi, Flossie, David, Gilka, Flo, Lucy, etc. The lifestyle of chimpanzees are shown in great detail. Jane describes some chimpanzees such as Lucy having a “friendship” with her. An example of that “friendship” is in Chapter Two, Lucy and Jane had known each other so long, that Jane was holding her and Lucy hugged Jane and kissed Jane. Although Chimpanzees seem all sweet, they are known to cause wars, and even killing other animal’s infants. Chimps are also

Primates are one of the most interesting mammals on earth, not only because of their complex social structures, but because they hold so many similar characteristics to humans. Primates are often cited as our closest living relatives and on two separate occasions I observed four separate species of primates at the San Diego Zoo that can justify their use of their physical characteristics and behaviors that may be similar as well as different to the other primates and ours.


Humans and non-human primates have many behaviors and characteristics in common. Apes and chimpanzees have been studies and closely watched for many years. Scientist and researchers and found many similarities between the apes and chimpanzees with humans. All three are hard working and work with tools. They also make these tools. Another similarity is the fact that they are very social with others of their breed. This is also true about other primates other than apes and chimpanzees, like lemurs, lorises, pottos, and tarsiers. Apes and chimpanzees are able to learn sign language and elementary math skills. All primates have nails instead of claws on their fingers and toes. Both non-human primates and humans all have opposable thumbs. They use these thumbs to be able to pick up things better and they are thumbs that are able to move and touch other parts of the same hand. Non-human primates, including humans, learn by watching their mothers and other family members. For example, chimpanzees learn to make stick tools to stick into holes to get termites to eat. They do this because the mothers never teach them

Despite a lack of scientific academic education, Jane Goodall’s work on the chimpanzees made revolutionary breakthrough in the field of understanding chimpanzee behavior. It was all made possible by her firm belief on her unconventional methods which academics in the field eyed with cynicism and felt was pointless. Such pessimistic outlook on her efforts from established academics did not blight her morale; instead she carried on with her methods of analyzing the chimpanzee population with full enthusiasm and self belief.

Not only did Jane discover their tool making abilities, but also they eat both plants and animals, such as bush pigs and termites (Goodall 1971). This fascinated many other primatologists because chimps were once thought of as herbivores. Jane also realized chimpanzees seem to express the same feelings humans do, though it is not certain (Goodall 598). Examples of such emotions are love, confusion, fear, and aggression. They often show love and care to

Goodall, J. (1971). In the Shadow of Man. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. The author’s goal in writing this book is to discuss her experiences and what she had learned from studying wild Chimpanzees. Goodall wrote this book in order to convey her knowledge of a species of animal she loves very much, so that others may become educated and join her in protecting them. She dreamed of going to Africa to see them, and was offered a job by Dr. Lewis Leakey. Goodall wanted nothing more than a chance to help. Her experiences in surrounding herself with them have completely changed the way scientists conduct field research. Whether she intended to or not, the data she has collected has debunked myths and uncovered truths about chimpanzees, while bringing more light to human behavior.

I found Goodall’s chapter Mothers and Daughters very fascinating, and caught my interest the most because I immediately found myself making connections within my own life and experiences. Goodall compared the parenting styles of the two mothers, Flo, and Passion. These two chimps have completely opposite ways of raising their young, with Flo being very loving, nurturing, and caring of her daughter Fifi, while Passion was a very cold, harsh, and intolerant mother to her daughter, Pom. You can easily see the dramatic difference in how their childhood shaped the two chimpanzees in their adulthood, just how we commonly see this in humans as well. Fifi had a

Thus, I was able to observe some similarities among these species. The way the female chimp used tools, and her fingers to grab food, how she used to be on her feet, freeing her hands, groom her child, educate her offspring, sleep with him while snuggling, use a lot of face emotions to convey a message to an individual; she smiled at her baby, laughed when playing, and tickling him, remind me of human. She also has a flat pink face, hands’ palm, and feet sole as humans do. Furthermore, the gorilla was also really human when he protected his eyes from the intense sunrays, following the movement of the sun, and sat in the shade, mated with a female, scratched his head, and bottom, and put his finger in his nose. I think that these humans’ pattern appeared for similar reasons as in the Primates. For instance, when the gorilla scratches his bottom, it is because the area is itchy, and he wants to remove what is indisposing him. In addition, the mother chimp educates her kid to transmit knowledge throughout generation, which is the same for humans, who go to school.

1. The social structure and behavior of chimps in their communities or troops suggest many questions. What research questions might Dr. Hahn and her associates ask?

This paper aims to study the traits of non-human primates. By observing two types of primates including Common Squirrel Monkey (Saimiri sciureus) and Western Gorillas (Gorilla Gorillas), I try to find out their characteristics, pattern of their behavior, and differences between these two primate species. Especially, characteristics and behavior such as social interaction, food acquisition and intelligence will be discussed and compared in this paper. In order to enhance the persuasiveness of my observation, I recorded and examined at least 25 distinct characteristics of both Common Squirrel Monkeys and Western Gorillas. It is also helpful for me to compare these two primates. Apart from exploring the primates’ traits and differentiation between them, this paper will discuss the effects of captivity. How being in captivity and on display in a zoo would influence their behaviors and emotions? The observation was a great success and I have successfully derived with a hypothesis base on our observing data. The ultimate goal of this paper is arousing humans’ awareness of the importance of studying primates.

Non human primates’ social organization can provide useful information how human social evolution occurs. We will go over main points of how similar and different non human primates such as chimpanzees, orangutans, and gorillas’ society are compared to ours, humans.

The article discusses the act of aggression of chimps against other chimps and how it is similar to that behavior in humans. The article noted that a the tactics used in aggression by chimps were very similar to those used by humans such as cost to aggressors(not attacking if the cost to the attacking group was too great), numerical superiority(attacking in a larger group to ensure success) and traveling in bigger groups to ensure safety. An interesting case brought up in the article was

My Introduction: My Life with the Chimpanzees has nine short chapters. In the first chapter, Goodall introduces the reader to her interests and her upbringing, but focuses mostly on the study of animal behavior, ethnology. She then explains to her reader what her field is and how it was founded and developed. The rest of the novel explains here time at Gombe National Park in Tanzania, her life as another and how she pioneered a new kind of ethnology, the study of chimpanzees.

Research by Yamamoto, Humle and Tanaka in 2009 concluded that chimpanzees show altruism only when prompted or pressured rather than voluntarily [5]. This particular empirical research challenges the evidence proposed by prior researchers and tests the limits of chimpanzee’s altruistic nature. Using colour-coded tokens, one of which allowed for a partner to share the reward with the test subject and one of which gave the test subject all of the reward, several chimps were tested as to their response. Results showed a tendency for the chimpanzee to take the prosocial option in situations both with and without peer pressure. Abnormally results showed that pressure or harassment from partners reduced the chimpanzee’s inclination to take the prosocial option. Although these results challenge prior research [5] they are limited as they are not conclusive and raise questions of their own to reach a complete understanding. These research results are significant in challenging an already established understanding of chimpanzee’s altruistic traits and acts as a good contrast to other references. This resource stands out as it does not make conclusive statements out of abnormal results but rather opens up a reader’s opinion and presents issues further

"If only we could, however briefly, see the world through the eyes of a chimpanzee, what a lot we should learn" (Goodall 110). With this quote, Jane summarizes her love for primates and it's from this sentence, written towards the end of the essay, that the reader can understand the authentic devotion that Jane has put into her studies. Jane Goodall, indeed, spent most of her life studying the habitat and unique social structure of chimpanzees since 1960-61. Researcher of primatology, Jane spent days living with the chimpanzees in order to study and understand the most important and interesting elements of their species through their everyday life. All those narrations and descriptions