Jane Goodall Passes Away at 91

Jane Goodall, the renowned British primatologist who changed the way we understand chimpanzees and became a leading advocate for wildlife, died at 91, as announced by her institute on Wednesday.

The Jane Goodall Institute shared on social media that Goodall “passed away from natural causes” while on a lecture tour in California.

The statement highlighted her transformative contributions to ethology and her relentless efforts in advocating for environmental protection and wildlife conservation.

Born on April 3, 1934, in London, Goodall’s interest in animals sparked when she received a stuffed toy chimpanzee from her father. Books like Tarzan, featuring a boy raised by apes, further fueled her fascination.

In 1957, through a friend’s invitation, she went to Kenya, where she began working with the famous paleontologist Louis Leakey.

Her significant breakthrough occurred when Leakey sent her to Tanzania to study chimpanzees. Goodall became one of the first women, alongside Dian Fossey and Bilute Gardika, to research great apes in their natural habitats.

Goodall’s pioneering discoveries included noting that chimps use tools—like grass stems and twigs—to extract termites from mounds.

Impressed by her findings, Leakey encouraged her to pursue a PhD at Cambridge University, where she notably became the eighth person to earn a doctorate without a prior bachelor’s degree.

In 1977, she established the Jane Goodall Institute to further study and protect chimpanzees. By 1991, she had also initiated Roots & Shoots, a youth-led environmental program active in over 60 countries today.

Her activism drew attention to various threats faced by wildlife, including exploitation in medical research, bushmeat hunting, and habitat destruction, especially after a U.S. conference on chimpanzees in the 1980s.

Goodall traveled extensively throughout the 1990s, advocating for wildlife.

In an interview last year, she emphasized the urgent need for action: “If you want to save the planet, the time has passed for words and false promises.”

Her core message revolved around individual responsibility and making a difference. She believed that “each individual has a role and can choose their impact on the planet every day.”