Jane Goodall, the legendary primatologist, conservationist, and tireless advocate for wildlife, passed away at age 91 on October 1, 2025.

The Jane Goodall Institute confirmed her death in California during a U.S. speaking tour, citing natural causes. Her passing triggered an outpouring of tributes from scientific communities, environmental groups, political leaders, and public figures worldwide.

Her path to global renown began in 1960, when as a young woman she traveled from England to what is now Tanzania to study chimpanzees in the wild. Despite having no formal university training at the time, she earned the trust of wild chimpanzees in the Gombe Stream region and made landmark observations. Among them: tool use, complex social relationships, emotional behavior, and individual personalities—discoveries that challenged long‑held assumptions about the uniqueness of human behavior. Her early work included the famous observation of a chimpanzee she named “David Greybeard” bending a twig to fish for…