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Goodall is best known for groundbreaking studies and decades of studying wild chimpanzees in Tanzania.
CALIFORNIA, USA — Dr. Jane Goodall, the famed chimpanzee researcher, has died, the institute in her name announced Wednesday. She was 91.
“Dr. Goodall’s discoveries as an ethologist revolutionized science, and she was a tireless advocate for the protection and restoration of our natural world,” the Jane Goodall Institute said in a statement.
The organization added that Goodall died of natural causes while in California.
“Today is a profoundly sad day for the planet. But Jane’s light continues in all of us,” the institute wrote on her social media. “Together, we will keep her legacy alive. Rest peacefully, Jane. Thank you for showing us the way.”
She recently spoke at New York Climate Week 2025 and was in California as part of her speaking tour in the United States. She was scheduled to speak in Los Angeles on Oct. 3 and in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 7.
Goodall is best known for groundbreaking studies of wild chimpanzees in Tanzania, decades-long research that continues. Mattel previously made a Barbie to honor her as part of their certified carbon neutral dolls made from mostly recycled ocean-bound plastic.
Goodall was also a United Nations Messenger of Peace.
Goodall’s work began in the 1960s when she and her mother Vanne went to Gombe, Tanzania to research the wild chimpanzee. National Geographic published Goodall’s “My Life Among the Wild Chimpanzees” in 1963, showing the world her relationship with the chimps and new details about how they interact in the wild.
Her research discovered chimpanzees to eat meat and they make and use tools. Her observations also found cannibalism and rivalries among chimpanzees in the area.
All together, Goodall’s passion for the research and chimpanzees shifted how the world perceived the human’s closest living biological relatives, but also the emotional and social complexity of all animals.
While first studying chimps in Tanzania in the early 1960s, Goodall was known for her unconventional approach. She didn’t simply observe them from afar but immersed herself in every aspect of their lives. She fed them and gave them names instead of numbers, something for which she received pushback from some scientists.
Goodall has earned top civilian honors from a number of countries including Britain, France, Japan and Tanzania. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2025 by then-U.S. President Joe Biden and won the prestigious Templeton Prize in 2021.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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