The Chimpanzees of Gombe.

There are several books within these covers. Thereis, of course, the core of detailed case history descriptions for the 50 or so chimpanzees that have resided in the Gombe Stream National Park of Tanzania during the 25-year period of Jane Goodall's research there. These are presented in richly illustrated topical chapters that cover all aspects of chimpanzee social behavior and much about the world in which the chimpanzees live and with which they interact. Until now, this slowly accumulating body of observations has only been found scattered through Goodall's films, lectures, and writings for the general public or in the technical writings of the graduate students and other colleagues who worked at Gombe through the mid-1970s. In The Chimpanzees of Gombe Goodall brings together for the first time the information provided by the numerous Tanzanian and foreign observers.

Interwoven throughout the volume,among the comings and goings of chimpanzees, are parallel themes that also unfolded over the quarter-century at Gombe and that are an inevitable part of the lives of the chimpanzees and the conduct of a long-term project such as this one. The 25 years of the Gombe study span much of the history of primate field studies and of modern African wildlife research. It also spans most of the period since achievement of independence for East Africa, a period of both stability and change, of rapid population growth, agricultural development, and economic pressures, of changing levels of education and ecological and conservation awareness. Inevitably, the scientific and human history of this period has, to varying degrees, affected Gombe, its animals, and the research. The story of those effects and issues is scattered, at some times explicit and at others implicit, throughout the volume. The issues raised by these subplots each provide ample material for separate books. They may, in the long run, be of comparable or greater importance for the future of the chimpanzees and of the other plants and animals with which we share this world and from which we seek to understand that world and ourselves.

The present volume, reasonably pricedthough expensively produced with an abundance of photographs, large margins, and colored diagrams adn graphs, is surely aimed at the large and diverse audience that Goodall and her chimps have reached through the years. This audience will not be disappointed. The book is full of detailed reports of chimpanzee adventures, big and small, heroic and shocking and routine. Taken as a whole, the descriptions provide a testament to the rich diversity of behavior among the chimpanzees. Goodall emphasizes the considerable variability in the behavior of different individuals and of single individuals over time and the disproportionate effects on others that single events or individuals sometimes have. For some sections (for example, on most demographic topics, the sociograms, and family associations), the lucid descriptions are well complemented by useful quantitative data provided in graphs and tables. Sometimes, however, the usefulness of quantitative information is limited by the techniques of data collection, problems Goodall had in extracting data from the many years of handwritten notes, and presentation of values apparently uncorrected for differential observation time for different animals or differential preponderance of age-sex classes in the population. In these cases, the reader may wish to focus more exclusively on the compelling descriptive examples. Once can hardly open to any page of the volume without becoming engrossed in some finely reported series of observations. It is difficult to imagine a reader who comes away from this book without a tremendous respect for the variety and complexity of chimpanzee life, the necessity of longitudinal, life-history data, the importance of rare events and unusual individuals, or the necessity of studying processes at several levels of organization. Reductionists and generalizers will not find comfort here.

Field research can pose some complexdilemmas about the interventive role of the observer. Goodall candidly discusses the extensive feeding of the Gombe chimpanzees that she did to facilitate observations, her recognition that this was a mistake, and the demonstrated and possible effects of the feeding on the animals. A low level of feeding continues at Gombe, however, as does some level of interaction with chimps and some medical care. Goodall feels that the present level of feeding is insufficient to affect behavior, and the medical care is defended as a blance to the considerable negative human effects on the lives and numbers of this increasingly endangered species. The arguments are debatable, and I disagree with a number of the specific decisions. What is important, however, is that Goodall is open about these decisions and activities. What is even more important is for others to take decisions about such interventions, and their consequences, at least as seriously as Goodall does. Field studies of this and other species often include examples of at least as much human intervention. In addition, researchers and conservationists increasingly translocate individuals or groups of animals from their home areas to other regions, rehabilitate and release captive animals into natural habitat, and perform experiments and biomedical procedures on wild animals in the field. For the most part we remain ignorant of the effects on behavior, on stability within the natural communities of the same and other animal species and plant species, on gene distribution, and on patterns of disease. Some of these interventions have major potential benefits in terms of scientific knowledge or conservation. They therefore form an important link between traditional laboratory and field research. The potential costs are also great, however, and usually irreversible. With natural areas dwindling and the list of endangered species growing, it is increasingly urgent that the scientific community, and those entrusted with the care of natural areas, attend more to the issues of direct human intervention in the wild areas that Goodall has grappled with.

During the 25 years of the Gombe research,indirect human intervention has changed the chimpanzees' world in some major ways. One of the most important for the future, highlighted by Goodall through maps as well as words, is the fact that the Gombe chimps are no longer a part of a larger, continuous population. Essentially, they now constitute a small, isolated population on an ecological island. As a result of human population growth, ssettlement, and increasing agricultural development, Gombe is cut off from dispersal opportunities. The larger connected areas would ordinarily allow for behavioral and genetic exchange and provide buffer areas that damp the effects of highly local or short-term fluctuations in factors such as food availability and population size and composition. This pattern of habitat and population fragmentation is occurring throughout the world and for many of our most familiar large mammals. Longitudinal, long-term studies such as Goodall's are essential for documenting and investigating the consequences of such changes. Goodall makes it clear that large-scale patterns of movement have played an important role in chimp society. It remains to be seen if, how, and which chimps adapt to the changing options.

In the first 25 years of the Gombe project,Goodall and the chimpanzees of Gombe have been instrumental in engaging the interest of a large portion of the public and popularizing fieldwork, conservation, and the richness of primate behavior, the benefits of which extend far beyond Gombe. In recent years, Goodall and the chimpanzees have increasingly begun to face complex conservation issues that are now among the most critical for the future of wildlife and of major economic importance for the developing countries in which most of the wildlife resides. If she and the chimps can again lead the way to public awareness, they will again provide an invaluable service.