Remembering Jane Goodall

Dame Jane Goodall, the pioneering primatologist whose groundbreaking research on chimpanzees transformed people’s understanding of animal behavior, has died, aged 91. Her death was confirmed by her foundation.

Born in London, Goodall was 26 when she arrived in Tanzania’s Gombe Stream National Park in 1960, beginning decades of research that challenged long-held scientific assumptions about the connection between chimpanzees and humans. Her most famous early discovery came when she observed chimpanzees stripping leaves from twigs to extract termites, disrupting the long held belief that tool use was unique to humans.

Her approach of naming the chimpanzees, observing them at close quarters and documenting their complex social bonds was unconventional at the time. Though initially criticized, her work redefined the field. Goodall’s research also revealed the emotional lives of chimpanzees through their capacity for nurturing family connections, but also for territorial violence.

Over the decades, Goodall became a global advocate for conservation and climate action. Through the Jane Goodall Institute she focused on habitat restoration and youth education. In a message for Earth Day earlier this year Goodall said: “I do believe there is a window of time when we can at least slow down climate change and loss of biodiversity. But only if we get together and take action now. And without hope we will fall into apathy and do nothing. If this happens we are doomed.” 

Goodall’s legacy is scientific and cultural, a lifelong insistence that humanity’s future is bound to the natural world.