Jane Goodall sat on the ground at the Las Vegas Plaza on Earth Day in 2010, surrounded by children.

Teresa Gray’s daughter, then about 4 or 5, held a chubby tan puppy in her lap.

“You be careful with those puppies because you’re a lot bigger than them and you might scare them,” the toddler advised the renowned primatologist and conservationist, her mother recalled.

“So she’s telling Dr. Jane how to handle these puppies,” said Gray, who lived in Las Vegas, N.M., at the time and helped organize the conservationist’s 2010 trip.

The researcher, who died early Wednesday at age 91, was originally from England but traveled widely around the globe, including many visits to New Mexico.

Former New Mexico state land commissioner Ray Powell said over the years Santa Fe became one of Goodall’s hav

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