The World Remembers Jane Goodall, a Champion of Primates and Nature
Jane Goodall, a British world-renowned ethologist, conservationist, and humanitarian, passed away on October 1, 2025, at the age of 91. She was born as Valarie Jane Morris-Goodall, and was the oldest daughter of Mortimer Herbert Morris-Goodall, a businessman and race car driver, and Margaret Myfanwe Joseph, a writer.
Goodall was known for her 65-year study of wild chimpanzees in the city of Gombe, Tanzania. She had been passionate about the topic of wildlife ever since her early childhood. She would consistently read about the natural world. She founded the Jane Goodall Institute and was the UN Messenger of Peace.
On July 14, 1960, Jane arrived in Gombe for the first time. In this city, she developed her own unique understanding of chimpanzee behavior and made a ground-breaking discovery. She discovered that chimpanzees both made and used tools.
Furthermore, she broke the scientific convention and, instead of using numbers to identify animals, she assigned them names. For instance, she named a male chimp that had silver facial hair David Greybeard. At first, this practice of assigning names was upsetting to many senior scientists at the time, but today, it is a common practice to give animals names.
Goodall immersed herself in the habitat of the chimpanzee and their lives to conduct research about their complex society, as their neighbor, rather than observing them from a distance. She came to understand chimpanzees not only as a species, but also as individuals capable of experiencing emotion and having long-term bonds.
Jane was the first one to demonstrate that animals had emotions, empathy, and culture, which had all been believed to be traits for humans alone. Research such as this one revolutionized how animal studies were conducted.
Goodall’s legacy is mostly about the many women that she inspired to follow in her footsteps. She was one of the few students who was accepted into a PhD at Cambridge without earning an undergraduate degree. She completed her PhD in 1965.
“I think her activism is what will stick with my generation the most. Her science gave her the proof, but her activism gave us a plan. She turned her discoveries into a global call for action, and that’s the part of her legacy that I think will have the biggest impact on us,” says junior Jacob Orellana.
One of the women she inspired was Alison Behie, who is an anthropologist at the Australian National University. Behie explained how, after having attended a talk by Jane, she switched her undergraduate major from microbiology to anthropology. Behie also started taking primatology and conservation courses.
“She came to speak at the exact time that I was not quite sure what sort of science I wanted to do,” said Behie.
Jane Goodall’s research at Gombe completely transformed our understanding of Chimpanzees and gave a new definition of the relationship between humans and animals. Through almost 60 years’ worth of ground-breaking work, she has shown the urgent need to protect chimpanzees from extinction. She traveled the world to speak about the threats they face, along with other environmental crises, and she encouraged all of us to take action.
“Her activism efforts to protect wild chimpanzees has influenced and motivated others to become global leaders in the cause of environmental conservation,” said junior Kylee Stfort.
