What happened
Jane Goodall, the conservationist and primatologist who rose to international fame for her groundbreaking field research with chimpanzees in Tanzania, died in her sleep Wednesday in Los Angeles while on a speaking tour. She was 91.
Who said what
Goodall was 26 and had no formal scientific training when she started studying a group of chimpanzees at a primitive research station on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, under an arrangement with her mentor, paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey. Within months, in the fall of 1960, she observed a male chimp fashioning twigs into an instrument to fish termites from a nest. Her revelation that primates used tools, a talent “considered uniquely human” at the time, “rocked the research world,” The Wall Street Journal said.
Goodall’s observations, detailed in magazines and documentaries, “transformed how the world perceived not only humans’ closest living biological relatives but also the emotional and social complexity of all animals,” The Associated Press said. Evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould called her discoveries about how chimpanzees raise their young, go to war, organize socially and experience human-like emotions “one of the Western world’s great scientific achievements.”
What next?
The Jane Goodall Institute, which she founded in 1977, will continue her conservation work and research. “Jane would be the first person to tell us that what the world needs right now is not sadness over her loss, but to get to work,” University of St. Andrews primatologist Cat Hobaiter told the BBC. “We all have a lot to be getting on with to make sure that we are not the last generation to live alongside wild chimpanzees.”
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Meet Ireland’s new socialist presidentIn the Spotlight Landslide victory of former barrister and ‘outsider’ Catherine Connolly could ‘mark a turning point’ in anti-establishment politics
-
Should TV adverts reflect the nation?Talking Point Reform MP Sarah Pochin’s controversial comments on black and Asian actors in adverts expose a real divide on race and representation
-
Crossword: November 1, 2025The Week's daily crossword puzzle
-
To the point: the gender divide over exclamation marksTalking Point ‘Men harbouring urges to be more exclamative’ can finally take a breath – this is what using the punctuation really conveys
-
Spaniards seeing red over bullfightingUnder the Radar Shock resignation of top matador is latest blow in culture war over tradition that increasingly divides Spain
-
Hungary’s Krasznahorkai wins Nobel for literatureSpeed Read László Krasznahorkai is the author of acclaimed novels like ‘The Melancholy of Resistance’ and ‘Satantango’
-
Sing songs with Sandler, gawk at Gaffigan: These are the comedians to catch on tour this fallthe week recommends Laugh to keep yourself from crying
-
Television personalities who have come under fireIn Depth Jimmy Kimmel is the latest TV host to be swept up in controversy
-
8 riveting museum exhibitions on view in the fall — and well into 2026The Week Recommends See Winslow Homer rarities and Black art reimagined
-
10 concert tours to see this fallThe Week Recommends Concert tour season isn't over. Check out these headliners.
-
5 of the best platonic TV friendshipsthe week recommends Maintaining boundaries has proven tricky for all but the most committed of buddies on the small screen
