Conservationist and chimpanzee researcher Jane Goodall has passed away. She was 91. “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 Jane Goodall Institute stated on social media. “Dr. Goodall’s discoveries as an ethologist revolutionized science, and she was a tireless advocate for the protection and restoration of our natural world,” it added. “Today, the UN family mourns the loss of Dr. Jane Goodall,” the United Nations stated. “The scientist, conservationist and UN Messenger of Peace worked tirelessly for our planet and all its inhabitants, leaving an extraordinary legacy for humanity and nature,” it continued. Today, the UN family mourns the loss of Dr. Jane Goodall. The scientist, conservationist and UN Messenger of Peace worked tirelessly for our planet and all its inhabitants, leaving an extraordinary legacy for humanity and nature. pic.twitter.com/C0VMRdKufF — United Nations (@UN) October 1, 2025 ABC News has more: Goodall’s love of animals began practically at birth, she told ABC News. As a child growing up in London and Bournemouth, she dreamed of traveling to Africa and living among the wildlife. When she was 10, she read the books “Doctor Dolittle” and “Tarzan,” and the inspiration changed the trajectory of her life. The initial arrival into Gombe National Park proved to be challenging. The terrain was steep and mountainous, the forests were thick, and threats from buffalo and leopards lurked in the wilderness. But her lifelong ambition had finally been realized, and Goodall knew she was where she was meant to be. “It was what I always dreamed of,” she told ABC News. Goodall later earned a PhD in ethology, the study of animal behavior, from the University of Cambridge. Her thesis detailed the first five years of study at the Gombe reserve. In 1977, Goodall founded the Jane Goodall Institute with Genevieve di San Faustino. Headquartered in Washington, D.C. with offices in 25 cities around the world, the organization aims to improve the treatment and understanding of primates through public education and legal representation. Jane Goodall has died at 91. Her startling observations about chimpanzee behaviors revolutionized not only scientific understanding of the capabilities and inner lives of primates, but also long-held notions about what it means to be human. https://t.co/axM4A5nkhh pic.twitter.com/vgsNfFZhRS — The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) October 1, 2025 Joe Biden awarded Goodall a Presidential Medal of Freedom in January 2025. Jane Goodall (@JaneGoodallInst) receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom. pic.twitter.com/uZC1VEWRhI — CSPAN (@cspan) January 4, 2025 The Hill shared additional details: 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. While living among the chimps, Goodall documented the animals using tools and doing other activities previously believed to be exclusive to people, and also noted their distinct personalities. Her observations and subsequent magazine and documentary appearances in the 1960s transformed how the world perceived not only humans’ closest living biological relatives but also the emotional and social complexity of all animals, while propelling her into the public consciousness. ″What the chimps have taught me over the years is they’re so like us. They’ve blurred the line between humans and animals,″ she told The Associated Press in 1997. In addition to her work as a primatologist and researcher, she became a vocal conservationist, fighting against deforestation. “Because we are part of the natural world, not only that, we depend on it for food, water, clothing – everything. We depend on healthy ecosystems, the complex intertwining of different animal and plant species,” she said at Global Citizen Festival 2024 in New York City. “If nature continues to deteriorate the way it is now, what’s the future for our grandchildren?”