Jane Goodall, the world’s foremost expert on chimpanzees whose work was captured in more than 40 documentaries, died Wednesday in Los Angeles. She was 91.
The Jane Goodall institute issued a statement, saying, “The Jane Goodall Institute has learned this morning, Wednesday, October 1, 2025, that Dr. Jane Goodall DBE, UN Messenger of Peace and Founder of the Jane Goodall Institute has passed away due to natural causes. She was in California as part of her speaking tour in the United States.”
She had been set to speak in Los Angeles at UCLA on Friday.
Her work was covered in detail in the 2017 documentary “Jane,” assembled from 140 hours of footage that had been hidden in National Geographic’s archives. It won two Primetime Emmys and several other awards.
She was the subject of more than 40 documentaries from National Geographic, Animal Planet, Disneynature and more. Most recently, the 2023 Imax film “Jane Goodall: Reasons for Hope” explored her habitat restoration projects. She also lent her voice to animated shows including “The Simpsons” and “The Wild Thornberries.”
Goodall was a protegé of the noted anthropologist Louis S.B Leakey. Her 1960 discovery that chimpanzees were able to make and use tools revolutionized the field of primatology.
Born in Hampstead, London, she traveled to Kenya in 1957 and soon began working with Leakey. She became known for naming the chimps she worked with, rather than giving them numbers, and became the only human accepted into chimpanzee society.
She founded the Jane Goodall Institute in 1977 to support research on great apes, and also established Roots and Shoots, a youth program, and TACARE, which focused on sustainable development in African villages.
Goodall went on to tour the world with numerous speaking dates each year, speaking on conservation, climate change and animal behavior.
She is survived by a son, a sister and three grandchildren.
