Jane Goodall, wildlife advocate and primate expert dies at the age of 91

Scientist and global activist Jane Goodall, who turned her childhood love of primates into a lifelong quest for protecting the environment, has died at the age of 91, the institute she founded says.

Goodall died of natural causes while in California on a speaking tour, the Jane Goodall Institute said in a social media post on Wednesday.

“Dr. Goodall’s discoveries as an ethologist revolutionised science, and she was a tireless advocate for the protection and restoration of our natural world,” it said on Instagram.

Goodall was a pioneer in her field, both as a female scientist in the 1960s and for her work studying the behaviour of primates. She created a path for a string of other women to follow suit, including the late Dian Fossey.

She also drew the public into the wild, partnering with the National Geographic Society to bring her beloved chimps into their lives through film, TV and magazines.

She upended scientific norms of the time, giving chimpanzees names instead of numbers, observing their distinct personalities, and incorporating their family relationships and emotions into her work. She also found that, like humans, they use tools.

“We have found that after all there isn’t a sharp line dividing humans from the rest of the animal kingdom,” she said in a 2002 TED Talk.

As her career evolved, she shifted her focus from primatology to climate advocacy after witnessing widespread habitat devastation, urging the world to take quick and urgent action on climate change.

“We’re forgetting that we’re part of the natural world,” she told CNN in 2020. “There’s still a window of time.”

In 2003, she was appointed a Dame of the British Empire and, in 2025, she received the US Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Born in London in 1934 and then growing up in Bournemouth on England’s south coast, Goodall had long dreamed of living among wild animals. She said her passion for animals, stoked by the gift of a stuffed toy gorilla from her father, grew as she immersed herself in books such as Tarzan and Dr. Dolittle.

She set her dreams aside after leaving school, unable to afford university. She worked as a secretary and then for a film company until a friend’s invitation to visit Kenya put the jungle - and its inhabitants - within reach.

After saving up money for the journey, by boat, Goodall arrived in the East African nation in 1957. There, an encounter with famed anthropologist and paleontologist Louis Leakey and his wife, archaeologist Mary Leakey, set her on course to work with primates.

In 1977, she set up the Jane Goodall Institute, a nonprofit organisation aimed at supporting the research as well as conservation and development efforts across Africa. Its work has since expanded worldwide and includes efforts to tackle environmental education, health and advocacy.

A prolific author, she published more than 30 books with her observations, including her 1999 bestseller “Reason For Hope: A Spiritual Journey,” as well as a dozen aimed at children.

Her first husband and frequent collaborator was wildlife cameraman Hugo van Lawick with whom she had one son, known as ‘Grub’. Goodall divorced Lawick in 1974 and he died in 2002. In 1975 she married Derek Bryceson, who died in 1980.