Jane Goodall, the world’s most recognizable primatologist and a relentless voice for animals and the planet, has died at 91. Her institute said she passed of natural causes in California while on a speaking tour.
The statement praised “a tireless advocate for the protection and restoration of our natural world,” shared widely as tributes began pouring in. She is survived by her son, Hugo, and three grandchildren.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons / U.S. Department of State, License: Public Domain
Jane Goodall died at 91 of natural causes.
From Gombe to Global Icon
Goodall entered the forests of Tanzania at 26 and changed science. She documented chimpanzees using tools, grooming, and expressing complex emotions, challenging assumptions about a rigid line between humans and other animals, as ABC News reports. Her work began in 1960 under the mentorship of Louis Leakey and evolved into the longest-running study of wild chimpanzees through the Jane Goodall Institute, founded in 1977.
She once described the shock of watching a chimp “fish” for termites with a twig. “How like us they are,” she reflected, noting both tenderness and brutality in their societies—evidence that reshaped primatology and public understanding alike, ABC News reports.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons / COP PARIS, License: Public Domain
Goodall passed while on a U.S. speaking tour.
Voice for Animals—and for Hope
Goodall spent recent decades urging action on climate and biodiversity. She warned that the planet is “imperiled” and insisted there is still a window for change “if we’ve got to take action,” according to ABC News. Her institute called her discoveries revolutionary and her advocacy unflagging.
She kept a grueling travel schedule into her 90s, appearing at major forums and recording interviews days before her death, BBC News reports. In 2022, she even partnered with Apple to promote device recycling, linking daily choices to planetary outcomes, according to ABC News.
Wikimedia Commons / COP PARISGoodall documented chimpanzee tool use and complex emotions.
Personal Roots, Public Legacy
Goodall often credited her mother for encouraging a childhood dream of Africa and animals, a theme she discussed in multiple interviews. Her life also unfolded in the public eye—marriages to filmmaker Hugo van Lawick and later to Tanzanian parks director Derek Bryceson; motherhood in Gombe; and, eventually, global recognition as a U.N. Messenger of Peace.
Celebrities and cultural figures championed her mission. Early tributes today included public mourning from comedian Jon Stewart, captured in Newsweek’s live updates, reflecting her broad resonance far beyond science.
What Endures
Goodall’s imprint lives in sanctuaries, field stations, classrooms, and kitchen tables where children still read about chimps named David Greybeard and Flo. Her Roots & Shoots youth movement continues to mobilize young people around the world, PEOPLE reports.
“People are waking up,” she said in recent years. “We still have a window of time.” Those words read like instructions more than nostalgia—an invitation to finish the work she began.
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