Remembering Jane Goodall

Renowned primatologist, ethologist, anthropologist, and activist Dr. Jane Goodall died at the age of 91 on October 1, 2025. Goodall is known for her study of chimpanzees in Tanzania and later for her environmental conservation work and activism. Goodall overcame obstacles due to her gender and was at first considered unserious for naming and personally connecting with the chimpanzees she studied. Throughout her life, Goodall remained empathetic and hopeful, empowering the next generation to keep fighting for conservation efforts.

Goodall’s interest in the natural world began when she was a young child. While visiting a family member’s farm, she became fascinated with how chickens lay eggs and spent many afternoons in the henhouse watching them hatch. Goodall’s mother, Margaret Joseph, quickly realized Goodall had a unique curiosity and interest in nature. Goodall often credited her mother—who would later travel with her to Tanzania—as her greatest supporter. By age 10, after reading Tarzan, a gift from her mother, Goodall decided she wanted to go to Africa.

Goodall, unable to afford college, attended secretarial school and worked as a waitress to save money to travel to Kenya. At age 23, in 1957, she visited Kenya for the first time and met Dr. Louis Leakey, a paleoanthropologist who immediately recognized her intelligence and curiosity. Leakey sent Goodall to the Gombe Stream Game Reserve in Tanzania to study chimpanzees despite her lack of formal education. She explained, “Louis Leakey believed that women would make better observers in the field than men. He thought that they would be more patient.” Leakey also felt that Goodall’s lack of schooling would give her a different, unbiased perspective. At the time, it was unheard of to have female scientists, let alone independent female researchers in the field. Because of these sexist attitudes, male scientists did not feel threatened by Goodall, whom they underestimated.

Accompanied by her mother, Goodall went to the Gombe Stream Game Reserve, where she made revolutionary discoveries; in 1960, she observed chimpanzees eating meat for the first time. Previously, they were thought to be vegetarian. That same year, Goodall observed a chimpanzee named David Greybeard—the first chimp to become comfortable around her—using a small grass stem to eat termites. This observation was evidence that non-human primates are capable of creating and using tools, refuting the common consensus among scientists that the ability to use tools was what distinguished humans from other animals. It fundamentally challenged the textbook difference between “man” and animal. However, because of her lack of formal training, Goodall’s discoveries were not taken seriously. Many scientists further dismissed her findings because she named chimpanzees rather than assigning them numbers. She described chimpanzees’ thoughts and feelings and saw them as her friends. So, to gain support for her research, Goodall began studying to earn her Ph.D. from Cambridge in 1962. “I didn’t want to become a professor or get tenure or teach or anything. All I wanted to do was get a degree because Louis Leakey said I needed one, which was right, and once I succeeded, I could get back to the field,” Goodall explained. 

National Geographic published a cover story about Goodall’s work and research in 1963. It was met with scientific celebration of her findings, but also sexist criticism. Many male scientists claimed that Goodall only got the cover because she was good-looking. Still, Goodall ignored these dismissive reactions, earned her PhD in 1966, and continued making discoveries in the field. For example, in 1975, Goodall first observed cannibalism among chimpanzees when she saw a mother and daughter, whom she had named Passion and Pom, steal and kill baby chimps from their own community. 

Such discoveries could not have been made without Goodall’s deep passion and her understanding of chimpanzees’ emotions. She even learned how to make chimpanzee sounds so that they felt more comfortable around her. In 1977, she created the Jane Goodall Institute to “continue her chimpanzee research as well as expand efforts on chimpanzee protection, conservation, and environmental education,” according to the Institute’s website. Since then, she has spoken at countless conferences on chimpanzees, opened a sanctuary for them, and formed a non-profit called Roots and Shoots, which inspires young people to fight for conservation efforts and lead projects in their own communities.

As she moved away from field work, Goodall spoke about the wider issue of the climate crisis and loss of biodiversity occurring today. She was named the U.N. Messenger of Peace in 2004. Five years ago, Goodall launched a podcast, “The Jane Goodall Hopecast,” where she interviewed scientists and emphasized the importance of remaining hopeful about our planet’s future. At the beginning of each episode, she asked listeners: “What is your greatest reason for hope?” She then published The Book of Hope, in which she writes, “Probably the question I am asked more often than any other is: Do you honestly believe there is hope for our world? For the future of our children and grandchildren? And I am able to answer truthfully: yes.”

The next year, Goodall told TIME, “I’m about to leave the world with all the mess, whereas young people have to grow up into it. If they succumb to the doom and gloom, that’s the end. If you don’t hope you sink into apathy; hope is a crucial way to get through this.” Deforestation is only getting worse; our global temperatures are dangerously rising; and we are losing biodiversity every day. But, as Dr. Goodall said, we cannot fight for our planet if we do not have hope that we will succeed. If we all can be curious, thoughtful, and determined like Dr. Goodall, we can work together for our future.