Jane Goodall, the most prolific primatologist of a generation, has died. She was 91 years old.
“The Jane Goodall Institute has learned this morning, Wednesday, October 1, 2025, that Dr. Jane Goodall DBE, UN Messenger of Peace and Founder of the Jane Goodall Institute has passed away due to natural causes,” the institute said on social media. “She was in California as part of her speaking tour in the United States.”
Goodall’s discoveries as an ethologist revolutionized science, and she was a tireless advocate for the protection and restoration of our natural world.
It was July 1960 when Goodall, 26 years old at the time, first entered Tanzania and began her important research on chimpanzees in the wild. Throughout her study of the species, Goodall proved that primates display an array of similar behaviors to humans, such as communicate, develop individual personalities, and make and use their own tools.
Among the most surprising discoveries Goodall made when the research began was “how like us” the chimpanzees are, she told ABC News in 2020.
“Their behavior, with their gestures, kissing, embracing, holding hands and patting on the back,” she said. “The fact that they can actually be violent and brutal and have a kind of war, but also loving and altruistic.”
That discovery is considered one of the achievements of 20th century scholarship, according to the Jane Goodall Institute.
Goodall’s research garnered both scientific honors and mainstream fame, and she was credited with paving the way for a rise in women pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering and math over the years. The number of women in STEM has increased from 7% to 26% in the six last decades, according to The Jane Goodall Institute, which cited census information from 1970 to 2011.
The anthropologist continued to lend her voice to environmental causes well into her 80s and 90s.
She was subject of many documentaries, including 2017’s Jane, and her place in pop culture history was further cemented in 2022 when Mattel announced a special edition Barbie doll to commemorate the 62nd anniversary of her first visit to Tanzania’s Gombe National Park.
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