| In 1960 Jane Goodall began her pioneering
research at the Kakombe Valley in Tanzania. In 1967
the Gombe Stream Research Center (GSRC) was founded
to coordinate the study of the wild chimpanzee populations.
Gombe National Park was not established until 1968.
GSRC is located on the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika,
15km north of the town of Kigoma and is accessible only
by boat. The chimpanzee research program at GSRC is
the longest continuous research program of any species
worldwide. The wealth and importance of the data collected
on the chimpanzees and baboons at GSRC cannot be overstated;
data collected in Gombe National Park has changed the
definition of humanity and has provided a window for
innovative scientific data collection methods.
Field research
at GSRC has focused on the behavior of two communities
of eastern chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii);
the Kakombe community and the Mitumba community which
was habituated much later in the early 1990s. Studies
of several troops of baboons (Papio anubis) also began
at GSRC in the early 1970s as well as much shorter studies
of red colobus monkeys (Colobus badius tephrosceles).
The chimpanzee research program at GSRC continues to
provide ground-breaking scientific research on demographic
patterns, male politics, hunting, culture, and mother-infant
relations of the local chimpanzee communities. Research
has been concentrated in both the central and, more
recently, northern portions of Gombe National Park,
although it is also known that there is at least one
unhabituated community of chimpanzees currently living
in the southern area of the Park. The total population
of chimpanzees within the boundary of Gombe National
Park has been estimated at roughly 85-90, although no
official census has been conducted to date. While not
receiving equal media attention, JGI has also been conducting
baboon research at GSRC for over two decades. All past
and present data collected at Gombe is catalogued and
managed by the Jane
Goodall Center for Primate Studies based at the
University of Minnesota.
The wildlife and vegetation of Gombe National Park
faces serious conservation threats due to the limited
chimpanzee gene pool, human encroachment and the existence
of ‘island’ habitat constraints. As such,
it is important that the research programs at GSRC are
coupled with conservation and community development
programs for the communities surrounding the park. To
do this, JGI initiated the Lake
Tanganyika Catchment Reforestation and Education project
(TACARE) in 1994. The program was designed as a
pilot project to address poverty and support sustainable
livelihoods in villages around Lake Tanganyika while
arresting the rapid degradation of natural resources,
especially in the remaining indigenous forest. The program
focuses on community socio-economic development, and
offers training and education in sustainable natural
resource management.
An endeavor that many predicted would last only a few
months has now become the longest running field study
of any animal species in their natural surroundings;
over 40 years. Research at GSRC continues to this day,
mostly by a trained team of Tanzanians and with tremendous
moral support from the Tanzanian government.
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