The British-born primatologist, anthropologist, zoologist, and author Jane Goodall—who found international fame for her intensive work with chimpanzees in Tanzania’s Gombe National Park in the 1960s, as well as her enthusiastic advocacy for animal welfare and conservation efforts—has died, according to a statement from the Jane Goodall Institute. She was 91.
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“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,” read the announcement, which was shared to social media. “She was in California as part of her speaking tour in the United States.”
It continued: “Dr. Goodall’s discoveries as an ethologist revolutionized science, and she was a tireless advocate for the protection and restoration of our natural world.”
On the occasion of her 90th birthday last year, Goodall—who was still reportedly traveling 300 days out of the year for work—shared with Vogue her real and present concerns about the state of the environment, remarking, “We have really destroyed the planet. And we’re getting to a point of no return, but we still have a window of time. Why do you think I’m rushing around the world? Because if people lose hope, then you take no action. And then we’re doomed.”
Indeed, a spirit of curiosity, optimism, and—perhaps more than anything—a heartfelt connection to the natural world powered all of Goodall’s work, from her research with primates in East Africa to her later collaborations with companies like the ethically sourced fine-jewelry brand Brilliant Earth and the wellness brand Forest Remedies.
Asked by Vogue in 2020 where she would head first once the travel restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic were lifted, Goodall—who was then based in Bournemouth, in the south of England, where she’d lived as a girl—replied, “It will be to Tanzania where my family is, where Gombe is, where the research is…. I really need to get back there. I miss it more than I thought I would, sitting on the shore of Lake Tanganyika, watching the sun set, going out in the forest by myself, learning about the interconnection of all the different species that live in the forest and together make up this tapestry of life. It is so beautiful.”
Here, the world reacts to Dr. Goodall’s towering legacy:
