Legendary primatologist, anthropologist, and conservationist, Goodall has di£d aged 91. Goodall, a UN Messenger of Peace and Founder, died of natural causes while in California on a speaking tour of the United States, the institute she founded said in a statement on social media on Wednesday, October 1. Goodall dedicated her life to chimpanzees and worked on ground-breaking studies for almost 70 years. The British primatologist's "discoveries as an ethologist revolutionized science, and she was a tireless advocate for the protection and restoration of our natural world," according to the institute she founded.
Goodall was only 26 years old when she first traveled to Tanzania and began her important research on chimpanzees in the wild. Throughout her study of the species, Goodall proved that primates display an array of similar behaviors to humans, such as the ability to develop individual personalities, and could make and use their own tools. Among the most surprising discoveries Goodall made was "how like us" the chimpanzees are, she told ABC News in 2020. "Their behavior, with their gestures, kissing, embracing, holding hands and patting on the back," she said. "... The fact that they can actually be violent and brutal and have a kind of war, but also loving and altruistic." That discovery is considered one of the great achievements of 20th-century scholarship, according to the Jane Goodall Institute.
Goodall was the recipient of several honors throughout her life. In 1995, she was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for "services to zoology" and promoted to Dame Commander in 2003. Goodall's other honors included the French Legion of Honor, Japan's Kyoto Prize and the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom. She is survived by a son, Hugo Eric Louis van Lawick, from her first marriage to Dutch nobleman and wild photographer Baron Hugo van Lawick, as well as three grandchildren. Her second husband, former Tanzanian parliament member Derek Bryceson, di£d of cancer in 1980.