Famed anthropologist speaks in Salt Lake City

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Carole Mikita reportingFamed anthropologist Dr. Jane Goodall still travels the world at age 74 hoping to conserve animal life and the environment.

She met a group of young people in Salt Lake today who call her their hero.

"Dr. Jane," as she prefers to be called, is on the road 300 days a year. She leaves her beloved East Africa to inspire another generation with a program called Roots & Shoots.

Famed anthropologist speaks in Salt Lake City

After all, she became interested in animals as a child, and look what happened.

First came the chimpanzee calls, then a standing ovation for a woman who is a superstar to hundreds of elementary school students. It's a long way from East Africa to Salt Lake City, but they have much in common.

In 1960 Goodall said, "I knew that I'd finally been accepted the first time a mother left her infant chimp, actually come right up to me. I called that little chimpanzee Fifi, and our friendship has lasted over 40 years."

Dr. Jane Goodall's work goes on nearly 50 years later in Tanzania. She says she is still learning, but there are new concerns. She says, "The reason that I don't sit there, in the forest that I love, is because chimpanzees across Africa are vanishing. And as chimpanzees vanish with the forest in which they live, so, too, do all the other amazing creatures of the African rain forest."

Our planet, she says, needs help. Students from Morningside Elementary are members of Roots & Shoots, her global youth program, which has some 9,000 groups in 100 countries. The groups fight air pollution, plastic bags and urge energy conservation. Roots and Shoots member Rachel Jepsen says, "It's just an honor. I was just thrilled when I heard I was gonna get to meet her. She's just been an idol for me my entire life."

Goodall says, "So, it's a message of hope. Hundreds and thousands of young people like these three, working together, around the planet, can break through and make this a better world for all living things."

There is a screening of Jane Goodall's "Wild Chimpanzees" tonight at 7:30 at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts on the U. of U. campus; that event is at capacity, but she will be speaking tomorrow at Abravanel Hall at 7 p.m. Five-hundred seats are still available for that event.

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