Scientist and conservationist Dr Jane Goodall has died aged 91, prompting tributes from around the world – including New Zealand beauty entrepreneur Emma Lewisham, who called working with her “one of the most profound privileges of my life”.
Goodall, considered the world’s foremost expert on chimpanzees, died of natural causes in California while on her speaking tour, her institute confirmed.
Lewisham, whose skincare brand became the world’s first to achieve carbon positive status after being praised by Goodall, said the ethnologist was “an extraordinary force for good”.
“Jane’s message was always one of hope and action. She reminded us that every individual matters, every choice we make has an impact, and that even in the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges, we each have the power to make a difference,” Lewisham said.
Jane Goodall was one of a few people to earn a PhD without an undergraduate degree.
— Encyclopaedia Britannica (@Britannica) October 1, 2025
It was thought that her lack of formal academic training would allow her to remain unbiased by traditional thought and study the chimps with an open mind.
It worked. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/3eCi2oDTJ8
She said in a statement that Goodall was “an extraordinary force for good”, adding that working alongside her had been “one of the most profound privileges of my life”.
Goodall was born in London in 1934 and had an interest in animal behaviour from a young age, according to Britannica.com.
After leaving school at 18, she worked as a secretary and a film production assistant to save for her boat ticket to Africa in 1957, where she helped palaeontologist and anthropologist Louis Leakey after impressing him with her knowledge of the continent and its wildlife.
When they began studying wild chimpanzees on the shore of Lake Tanganyika, British authorities initially resisted the idea of a young woman living among wild animals in Africa, according to the Jane Goodall Institute New Zealand.
“They finally agree to Leakey’s proposal when Jane’s mother Vanne volunteers to accompany her daughter for the first three months.“
In July 1960, Goodall and her mother arrived on the shores of Gombe Stream Chimpanzee Reserve in western Tanzania.
The chimpanzees initially fled Goodall in fear, according to the institute.
“With patience and determination, she searched the forest every day, deliberately trying not to get too close to the chimpanzees too soon. Gradually, the chimpanzees accepted her presence.”
In October 1961, Goodall observed chimpanzees eating meat, and later watched them hunt for meat, disproving the widely held belief that chimpanzees are vegetarian.
The next month, she saw two chimpanzees making tools to extract termites from their mounds, according to the institute.
After selecting a thin branch, they would strip the leaves and push it into the termite mound, pulling it out a few seconds later to eat the termites that now covered the stick.
“This becomes one of Jane’s most important discoveries. Until that time, only humans were thought to create tools.“
On hearing of Jane’s observation, Leakey said: “Now we must redefine tool, redefine Man, or accept chimpanzees as humans.”
Goodall’s work in Gombe soon became more widely known, and in 1962, she was accepted at Cambridge University as a PhD candidate, despite not having a university degree. She’d earn her PhD in ethology – the study of animal behaviour – in 1965.
“Some scholars and scientists give Jane a cold reception and criticise her for giving the chimpanzees names, saying it would’ve been ‘more scientific to give them numbers’,” according to the institute.
“Jane had to defend an idea that might now seem obvious: that chimpanzees have emotions, minds and personalities.”
The Gombe Stream Research Centre was established in 1965, after a donation from the National Geographic Society that enabled the construction of permanent buildings on the site. In 1977, Goodall founded the Jane Goodall Institute for Wildlife Research, Education, and Conservation.
In 1984, she began work on “ChimpanZoo”, an international research programme at her institute to study captive chimpanzees and improve their lives through research, education, and enrichment, according to the institute.
Two years later, Goodall decided to switch her attention from Gombe to conservation efforts for wild chimpanzees after learning during a scientific conference about the extent of habitat destruction across Africa.
Goodall was involved in more initiatives in the 1990s, including founding a global environmental and humanitarian education programme for young people alongside 16 Tanzanian students in 1991.
In 1994, the Lake Tanganyika Catchment Reforestation and Education project (TACARE) began to help those living around the lake to create sustainable livelihoods, agriculture, micro-finance initiatives and education so as to conserve local habitat and animal species, according to the institute.
In 2002, Goodall was appointed to serve as a United Nations Messenger of Peace, and two years later, she was made a dame. She also received a French Legion of Honour in 2006 and the Unesco Gold Medal Award.
Goodall also wrote many papers, children’s books and the best-selling autobiography Reason for Hope, as well as appearing in multiple documentaries and Animal Planet TV specials.