The world’s best-know chimpanzee expert and conservationist, Dame Jane Goodall, has died at 91.
Goodall, a highly popular public figure and the subject of over forty films and documentaries, revolutionized the world’s understanding of animal behavior.
She was a zoologist, primatologist and anthropologist championed chimpanzee protection.
The Jane Goodall Institute promotes wildlife and environmental conservation, and has mushroomed into 24 branches.
What’s more, the interesting lady also founded an environmental and humanitarian programme called Roots & Shoots, which operates in 70 countries, enabling youth to join projects benefiting the community, animals and the environment.
Women in science particularly consider her an inspiration in a male-dominated field. An icon of subtle beauty, Goodall was pleased when Barbie created a doll after her, hoping that it would inspire little girls to follow their dreams.
The UN Messenger of Peace was born in Hamstead and read Dr Doolittle, a novel about a man who talks to the animals, as a child. While not having higher education, she travelled to Kenya at 23, meeting famous anthropologist Louis Leakey, who gave her te idea of studying chimps. Here she discovered the striking human behaviours of monkeys, who kiss, hug, fight and use tools to forage for food.
They have individual personalities and are emotionally complex, the young Goodall discovered. This contributed to the now commonly shared view that chimps and humans share so much common DNA.
Ultimately she read for a PhD in ethology at Cambridge, and married Hugo van Lawick, the National Geographic photographer of chimpanzees, with whom she has a son. Her second marriage was with Tanzanian parks director Derek Bryceson, who helped her establish the Gombe National Park.
Her research there, which began in 1960, became the longest-running wild chimpanzee study the world has seen. She was entirely devoted to her work. She militated against animal cruelty, exploitation, factory farming, and hunting trophy imports.
Jane Goodall published 25 books, for children and adults alike, and spent her final years giving lectures around the world. In her last book, she expressed curiosity about consciousness after death.
