(NEXSTAR) – Groundbreaking chimpanzee researcher Jane Goodall has died, the institute bearing her name said Wednesday. 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. She was in California as part of her speaking tour in the United States,” the organization posted on Instagram.
A schedule of events shows Goodall was scheduled to speak in Los Angeles on Friday.
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FILE – Jane Goodall plasy with Bahati, a 3 year-old female chimpanzee, at the Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary, near Nanyuki 170 kms (110 miles) north of Nairobi Sunday Dec. 6, 1997. Goodall was named Thursday, May 20, 2021 as this year’s winner of the prestigious Templeton Prize, honoring individuals whose life’s work embodies a fusion of science and spirituality. (AP Photo/Jean-Marc Bouju, file) -
Anthropologist Jane Goodall, right with husband Hugo van lawick behind camera, January 1974 (AP Photo) -
President Joe Biden, right, presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Nation’s highest civilian honor, to conservationist Jane Goodall in the East Room of the White House, Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) -
English primatologist and anthropologist Jane Goodall speaks in the panel “Earth’s Wisdom Keepers” on the last day of the forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, Friday, Jan. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
“Dr. Goodall’s discoveries as an ethologist revolutionized science, and she was a tireless advocate for the protection and restoration of our natural world,” the post continued.
Her legacy dates back to 1960, when she first traveled to Tanzania at age 26 to study chimpanzees. Through her years of research, she was often depicted crouching in the trees, notebook in hand, watching primates through her binoculars.
That sort of immersion into the animals’ natural environment was at the time an unorthodox approach to field research, the Jane Goodall Institute explains.
“Dr. Jane Goodall’s discovery in 1960 that chimpanzees make and use tools is considered one of the greatest achievements of twentieth-century scholarship. Her field research at Gombe transformed our understanding of chimpanzees and redefined the relationship between humans and animals in ways that continue to emanate around the world.”
In addition to her work as a primatologist and researcher, she became a vocal conservationist, fighting against deforestation.
She received a Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Joe Biden on Jan. 4, 2025.
This is a developing story.
