Bill grew up on a ranch in rural Oregon, and has always had a
keen interest in wildlife. After receiving a B.S. in range resource
management from Oregon State University, Bill joined the Peace
Corps and was assigned to an elephant conservation project in
the Selous Game Reserve in Southern Tanzania. He walked daily
wildlife transects, counting large game and predators in an effort
to assess the general health of the ecosystem.
In 1989, during his Peace Corps assignment, Bill met Jane
Goodall through a mutual friend. He spent time in Jane's house
in Dar es Salaam, helping to organize some of the Gombe chimpanzee
data. Bill finished his Peace Corps work in 1991, but returned
to TZ in May 1992 to work for Jane as a chimpanzee habituator
in Mitumba, the northern chimpanzee community in Gombe National
Park. Because of his athleticism and prior field experience,
he excelled at following chimps, and was in the field almost
every day. However, Bill worked in Mitumba for only a short
time. One day, Jane decided that Bill would be the best person
to attempt to capture a wild chimpanzee birth on videotape.
Fifi was pregnant, and Bill followed her every day for more
than a month, collecting detailed behavioral data, and waiting
for her to give birth. When Ferdinand was finally born, Bill
collected detailed data on what proved to be a difficult birth.
A few months later, Gremlin gave him another chance. This time,
Bill was able to successfully record Gaia's birth on video.
Bill proved to be a natural with a camera, and Jane decided
that he should continue to follow chimps, recording their daily
behavior on video. He has been doing this ever since, and has
amassed an unprecedented visual database of chimpanzee behaviors.
In addition to daily chimpanzee behavior, he has captured some
amazing events, including encounters with snakes, more births,
intercommunity attacks, infanticide attempts, and alpha male
takeovers.
Soon, visiting filmmakers started to recognize Bill's talent,
and began to recruit him as a cameraman and consultant for many
wildlife films that were being shot at Gombe. Bill was a consultant
for the IMAX film, released in 2002.
Bill is a valuable source of information about the Gombe chimps.
Few others know the current Gombe chimp population as well as
Bill. Visiting researchers have come to rely very much upon
this dedicated man with his tattered field vest, bright bandanna,
and omnipresent video camera.
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