Obituary: Primatologist Jane Goodall Dies At 91

Jane Goodall, internationally-renowned primatologist and conservationist died on October 1 in Los Angeles, USA. She was 91.

Goodall earned the respect of the science and conservation community with her work. Rhett Butler, Founder and CEO of Mongabay writes in his obituary: “Over the course of six decades, she moved from an unlikely young researcher in the forests of East Africa to one of the most recognizable scientists and conservationists of her time. Her patient fieldwork at Gombe transformed primatology, overturning entrenched beliefs about the uniqueness of humans and forcing science to reckon with animal minds.”

She was also an activist in her own way – turning her research findings and learnings into action. Butler continues: “She went on to found the Jane Goodall Institute, launch sanctuaries and community programs across Africa, and inspire millions through her Roots & Shoots movement for young people. Her influence reached far beyond science: she became a United Nations Messenger of Peace, an advocate for animal welfare, and a tireless voice for conservation at a time of mounting global crisis. Yet through all of this she remained known simply as ‘Jane,’ a figure who insisted that hope was not naïve but necessary.”

“Jane Goodall’s life was a testament to curiosity, compassion, and unwavering hope,” shares Mohan Alambeth, a retired forest official and conservationist. “In 1960, armed with little more than a notebook and binoculars, she entered the forests of Gombe and changed science forever. Her discovery that chimpanzees make and use tools shattered long-held beliefs about human uniqueness. But it was her gentle presence – listening deeply, naming her subjects and treating animals as sentient beings – is what redefined the soul of field research.”

“Beyond science, Goodall became a global voice for peace and the planet. Through the Jane Goodall Institute and her Roots & Shoots program, she inspired millions of young people to care for animals, each other, and the Earth. She leaves behind no ordinary legacy, but a living one: in every forest protected, every child awakened to wonder, and every creature treated with dignity. She walked with the wild and taught us how to listen,” he writes in a personal message.

Goodall was a friend and ambassador for Mongabay. In November 2024, four of us from Mongabay-India met and interviewed her while she was on a visit to Mumbai. She emphasised that for her, communicating about the environment was something as important as doing research and action. She said that she realised, with shock, during a conference in 1986, that the forests across Africa were in threat and in turn this meant a threat for the chimpanzees that lived in some of the forest tracts.

“I thought, I would love to stay in Gombe in the rainforest, learning about these chimpanzees, our closest relatives,” she told Mongabay-India. “But now this is a problem. I feel that I have to try and do something.” Thus, in 1986, she started working to communicate the message on conservation across the world.

She talked with enthusiasm about enthusing children and young adults to take action on the environment. The main message of the Roots and Shoots programme is that “every single one of us makes an impact on the planet every single day. We need to choose wisely on what impact we make. Growing this programme is my greatest hope for the future, for when young people understand the problem and are empowered to take action, they just roll up their sleeves and get to it. We need to slow down climate change and slow down biodiversity loss before it is too late.”

She also articulated hope in working with women. “Women understand the need to protect the environment because they love their children. They see the need to protect their future.” Women, she said, always had the nurturing aspect to their personalities, and conserving the environment is an extension of that.

“Hope has never been more important. If we lose hope, we fall into apathy and we are doomed,” she concluded that afternoon in November 2024. We realised from her team that she used to travel nearly 300 days in a year, even after she had crossed 90 years. After the camera had stopped, we asked her what the key to her energy was. “Passion,” was her single-word response.

That evening she lectured to a packed hall at the Tata Theatre of the National Centre for Performing Arts. Pin drop silence. Standing ovation.

In August 2025, Goodall had sent a recorded video message for the Nilgiriscapes conference to conserve the environmental and cultural landscape of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve (NBR). Even while contextualising her message on the larger global environmental threats, she appreciated the local groups within the NBR for coming together to take action.

Tarun Chhabra, ethnographer for the Toda community and ecologist, says that he reached Goodall for this message. He had met her once in 2009 at the World Wilderness Congress. Goodall was keen to hear about the Nilgiriscapes conference and what it aimed to achieve. Her message was an appropriate starting note at the conference.

“As a school student interested in the environment in the 1970s, I used to voraciously read the National Geographic and was always interested in reading about Jane Goodall’s work,” Chhabra says. “She was a great inspiration for people across the world.”

(Published under Creative Commons from Mongabay India)