Jane Goodall

Dame Valerie Jane Morris Goodall was an English primatologist and anthropologist whose life became closely tied to the wild chimpanzees of Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania. Born in Hampstead, London, on 3 April 1934, she grew up in a century when primatology was still a male-dominated field and when many scientists drew a firm line between humans and other animals. Over more than six decades of field research, Goodall helped change that view through patient observation of the Kasakela chimpanzee community.

Goodall’s love of animals began early. Her father gave her a stuffed toy chimpanzee named Jubilee instead of a teddy bear, and she later said her fondness for it helped spark her interest in animals. After her family moved to Bournemouth, she attended Uplands School in nearby Poole. Drawn to animals and Africa, she went in 1957 to a friend’s farm in the White Highlands in Kenya, then contacted the archaeologist and palaeontologist Louis Leakey simply to discuss animals. Leakey employed her as a secretary, then began preparing her for a larger research role.

In 1958 Leakey sent Goodall to London to study primate behaviour with Osman Hill and primate anatomy with John Napier. On 14 July 1960, with funding arranged by Leakey, she went to Gombe Stream National Park. Her mother accompanied her because the chief warden was concerned for their safety, and Goodall later credited her mother with encouraging her to pursue primatology. In 1962, Leakey sent her to the University of Cambridge, although she had no bachelor’s degree. She attended Newnham College and was awarded a PhD in ethology in 1965.

At Gombe, Goodall observed chimpanzees as social beings with individual personalities, emotions, and long bonds between family members and others in the community. Her work challenged long-held beliefs that only humans made and used tools, and that chimpanzees were vegetarians. She saw a chimpanzee use grass stalks to fish termites from a mound, and she observed chimpanzees strip leaves from twigs to make them more effective tools. Her findings helped redefine the traditional idea that humans were uniquely separate from other animals.

Goodall brought that work to a wide public through articles in National Geographic in the 1960s and through her first book-length study, In the Shadow of Man, published in 1971 and later translated into 48 languages. In 1977 she founded the Jane Goodall Institute to promote wildlife conservation, and in 1991 she founded the Roots & Shoots youth programme, which became a global network. She also established wildlife sanctuaries and reforestation projects in Africa, campaigned for the ethical treatment of animals in testing, farming, and captivity, and was appointed a United Nations Messenger of Peace in 2002.

Across her career, Goodall wrote 32 books, including 15 for children, and was the subject of more than 40 films. She travelled widely as a lecturer to promote conservation and climate action, and received honours including the National Geographic Society’s Hubbard Medal, the Kyoto Prize, the Templeton Prize, the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom, and appointment as a dame commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2003. Her words still carry force because they grew from years of close watching: a scientist’s patience, a child’s love of animals, and a public call to treat living creatures with greater care.