Dr Jane Goodall, the lady who
“abolished the barrier between man and animal” by dedicating 65 years of her
life to studying the behaviour of wild chimpanzees in Gombe, Tanzania, died at
the age of 91 on October 1, 2025.
In November 1960, after spending
many solitary hours watching from afar, Goodall could get close to one chimpanzee,
which she later named David Greybeard, to observe it stripping leaves from a
twig and then inserting it into a termite mound and twisting it around before
pulling it out and eating the termites that had latched on to it. This
significant discovery made her a renowned ethologist.
Besides making implements from
leaves and sticks, chimpanzees are also found to build nests in trees, hunt for
meat, form family relationships, and wage war on rival troops, which Dr Goodall
recorded to educate people about their manly skills. Indeed, she became famous
for informing the world about chimpanzees displaying rational thought and
emotions such as joy and sorrow, as well as actions like hugs, tickling and
pats on the back, just as humans do among family members and close friends.
From an early age, Jane Goodall,
the carefree child, had a deep passion for wildlife. She read ardently about
the natural world, and at just eight years old, she announced to her family that
she wanted to go to the forests of Africa “to live with and write about
animals”. At the age of 23, she finally realised her childhood dream by accepting
the offer made by her classmate to stay on their family farm outside
Nairobi.
Having thus achieved her
childhood ambition of travelling to the forest in Africa in 1957, Goodall
approached Dr Louis Leakey, the noted palaeontologist, with a request to employ
her as a secretary at the National Museum in Nairobi, Kenya, and take her on a fossil
hunting expedition in Tanzania. Later,
noticing her aptitude for patient field work and her “boundless curiosity”, Dr
Leakey included her in a study of chimpanzees in Gomba, Tanzania. The rest is
history.
Her groundbreaking work at Gomba,
promoted by National Geographic magazine, brought her to the attention of the
world’s media. Nevertheless, realising that Goodall’s work will be viewed
seriously only when she is academically qualified, Dr Louis arranged for
Goodall to study for a PhD in Ethology at Cambridge. She submitted her thesis—The Behaviour of Free-living Chimpanzees in
the Gombe Stream Reserve—and obtained PhD in 1965.
Throughout her life, she inspired
many scientists, notable among them are Dian Fossey, who studied gorillas in
Rwanda and Birute Mary Galdikas who studied orangutans in Borneo. She was a
“tireless advocate for the protection and restoration of our natural world”.
Her research reshaped our understanding of the natural world. As the former
Canadian Prime Minister commented, “she was a pioneer whose research and
advocacy reshaped our understanding of the natural world”. She urged us all to
remember that “every single one of us matters, every single one of us has a
role to play, and every single one of us makes a difference every single day”.
Over the decades, she became a
figure of international repute: a Dame Commander of the Order of the British
Empire, United Nations Messenger of Peace, and a bestselling author of many
books. Her seminal book—In the Shadow of
Man—details her research and discoveries about chimpanzee behaviour in
Gombe Stream, and this brought her international acclaim. The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times written in
collaboration with Douglas Abrams is another bestseller of her which focuses on
optimism in the face of global challenges. My
Life with Chimpanzees is the bestselling autobiography of her that appeals
to readers of all ages. She was also featured in many documentaries, of which, Miss Goodall and the Wild Chimpanzees made
her a globally famous celebrity, of course much to her bemusement.
However, she is known to have
used this fame only as a means to her mission of making the world a better
place to live. In 1977, she established the Jane Goodall Institute with a
mission to continue her research on chimpanzees and protect their habitats
through community-centred conservation. It also supports work on primate
welfare through public education and legal advocacy. Today, it has offices in 25 countries,
working with locals to improve natural habitats. In 1991, Goodall founded the
Roots & Shoots environmental program, which is a youth initiative for
conservation and humanitarian action.
Goodall travelled for about 300
days a year during her middle years and old age, to give speeches and raise awareness
for environmental causes, including conservation, biodiversity loss, and the
interconnectedness of all living things. As a conservationist, she encouraged everyone
to “use the gift of our life to make the world a better place”.
She cares so passionately about
the environment, about animals, about children that in an interview with Steve
Curwood that was aired on PRX, she questioned: “Do you think I’m going to let
the Donald Trumps and Bolsonaros and people like that knock me down and keep me
down?” She continued, “No, I’ll go on fighting till the day I die. Because I am passionate, and because I
believe we have a window of time. …[I]t’s only if we all do our bit and get
together that we can start slowing down climate change [and] heal some of the
harm that we’ve inflicted”.
In one of her interviews, perhaps
the last one, she said, “I see nature being destroyed all around the world”.
She lamented, “… what we are doing is stealing our children’s future … We still
haven’t learned to treat animals with respect”. She went on to say, “In these
times today, with what’s going on in the world, we must not give up, and
instead fight harder for truth and justice. If you lose hope, then we are
doomed”.
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