The Legacy that Outlived 2025 – Jane Goodall

Written by Olivia Gu

Dr. Jane Goodall, the pioneering ethologist and tireless advocate who spent six decades fighting for the natural world and forever changed our perspectives on science, has died. The Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) confirmed that its founder passed away peacefully of

natural causes on Wednesday, October 1, 2025, in Los Angeles, at the age of 91, while

traveling for a U.S. speaking tour.

Goodall’s death marks the end of an extraordinary era of scientific exploration and activism, but her message, that every individual has the power to make a difference, remains the driving force behind a global conservation movement.

Born Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall in London in 1934, her passion for animals was established early, fueled by a childhood dream of living among African wildlife. This dream came to life in 1960 when, without formal scientific training, she arrived at the Gombe Stream Game Reserve (now National Park) in Tanzania. Sponsored by famed paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey, the 26-year-old was tasked with observing the little known behavior of wild chimpanzees.

Goodall’s unconventional methodology was initially met with skepticism by the scientific establishment. She rejected traditional practices of assigning numbers to animals, choosing instead to give them names, such as David Greybeard, Flo, and Goliath. She began observing them as individuals with distinct personalities. Her patience and intimate approach yielded a seismic discovery in 1960: she observed David Greybeard modifying grass stems to “fish” for termites, proving that chimpanzees not only used tools, but manufactured them.

This single observation overturned the long-held belief that tool-use was an exclusively human trait. Upon hearing the news, Leakey famously declared: “Now we must redefine man, redefine tool, or accept chimpanzees as human." Goodall’s work subsequently revealed the complex social structures, fierce conflicts, and deep emotional bonds of chimpanzees, fundamentally transforming the field of ethology (the study of animal behavior) and permanently redefining humanity’s place in the animal kingdom.

By the mid-1980s, Dr. Goodall was no longer content to observe. Alarmed by deforestation, declining chimpanzee populations across Africa, and the plight of animals in captivity, she transitioned fully into a life of global advocacy. She founded the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) in 1977 to ensure the continuation of the Gombe research and to expand her efforts globally.

Her conservation model, known as TACARE (Take Care), was revolutionary. It recognized that effective wildlife conservation could not succeed without addressing the needs of the local people sharing the habitat. By integrating community-based programs that focused on sustainable livelihoods, health, and education, JGI established a template for holistic, community-centered conservation now practiced worldwide.

In 1991, she launched Roots & Shoots, a global youth program empowering young people in over 100 countries to take hands-on action to help people, animals, and the environment. This program became the engine of the “Hope” that characterized her later years.

For the final four decades of her life, Goodall was known for her relentless travel schedule, speaking to crowds, meeting with world leaders, and serving as a United Nations Messengerof Peace since 2002. She urged audiences to recognize the interconnectedness of the climate crisis, species extinction, and human well-being.

Her life was marked by numerous high honors, including being appointed a Dame Commander of the British Empire (DBE) and receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her monumental contributions to science and environmental action.

In her final statements and interviews, Dr. Goodall maintained her conviction that there was still time to save the planet, provided individuals chose action over apathy. Her legacy is one of compassion and enduring hope: a hope she summarized powerfully throughout her life.

“You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make."