Jane Goodall, primate expert and wildlife advocate, dies at 91

Scientist and global activist Jane Goodall, who turned her childhood love of primates into a lifelong quest for protecting the environment, died on Wednesday (October 1, 2025) at 91, the institute she founded said.

Dr. Goodall died of natural causes, the Jane Goodall Institute said in a social media post.

“Dr. Goodall’s discoveries as an ethologist revolutionized science, and she was a tireless advocate for the protection and restoration of our natural world,” it said.

The primatologist-turned-conservationist spun her love of wildlife into a life-long campaign that took her from a seaside English village to Africa and then across the globe in a quest to better understand chimpanzees, as well as the role that humans play in safeguarding their habitat and the planet’s health overall.

Dr.