The Gombe Stream national park is the place where Jane Goodall did her research on chimpanzee populations. Jane Goodall first traveled to Tanzania in 1960 at the age of 26 with no formal college training. Her research proved the intellectual and emotional sophistication of the chimpanzees. Goodall set up a small research station in Gombe in hopes of learning more about the behavior of our closest relatives. There she spent months tracking the chimpanzee troops, particularly the Kasekela chimpanzee community. She observed their daily habits until she was slowly accepted by one troop and was allowed rare and intimate glimpses into chimpanzee society.

In 1967, the Gombe Stream Research Center (GSRC) was established to coordinate ongoing chimpanzee research in the park. Run mostly by a team of trained Tanzanians, the GSRC is the longest-running field study of an animals species in their natural surroundings.