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Jane Goodall: A Look Into the Life
Jane Goodall: A Look into the Life
Samantha Kelly
October 1, 2025, Jane Goodall died at the age of 91 in Los Angeles, California due to natural causes. At the time, she was on a speaking tour throughout the United States advocating for climate action. Goodall was known best for her 65 years of groundbreaking research, but she was also an advocate for the conservation of our planet.
Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall was born in London, England, into a family of three. Growing up, Goodall had always been fascinated by animals. She would utilize her free time to watch native species of birds while taking notes and drawing sketches. It was common for her to also spend her time reading up on zoology and ethology (both studies of animal behaviors) books.
At the age of 26, Goodall started studying chimpanzees in what is now known as Tanzania. She did her research at the Gombe Stream Chimpanzee Reserve. Through her research she was able to find that chimpanzees exhibit extremely similar behaviors to that of humans. She also found that they are capable of having feelings and having distinct personalities. Dr. Louis Leakey, a respected paleontologist who hired Goodall as his secretary, advised Goodall to study for her PhD at Cambridge in order for her findings to be taken seriously.
During her lifetime she wrote at least 27 books for a wide variety of audiences. She was also featured in multiple films and documentaries and she also had a traveling exhibit called Becoming Jane. In 1977, she founded the Jane Goodall institute with the purpose of supporting the research happening at Gombe, but now hosts 25 offices that offer different programs worldwide.
Jane Goodall has had lasting impacts on the world. She has not only for her specific study of science, but for science as a whole. In an interview with an NAU student who is actively pursuing their degree in environmental science went to say, “studying chimpanzees lets us know about their culture,” he continued to say that this assists scientists in studying pre-historical human behaviors as well. When asked why her studies mattered, he began saying that people shouldn’t only care about her impact on how we can study humans, but that we should want to learn and actively care about what’s going on in our world. He ended his interview with, “there is nowhere else that life exists that we know of and you’re asking why studying life matters?”
Goodall's impact has been monumental. She was an outspoken advocate for human and animal rights. Just because she is no longer here doesn’t mean her fight stops. She is inspiring, and should continue to inspire people to not only advocate for themselves and their futures, but the people and the futures of every singly living being.