Overview

• The Jane Goodall Institute said on October 1 that she died of natural causes in California while traveling for conferences; she was 91.
• Leaders and public figures paid tribute, including UN chief António Guterres, UNESCO’s Audrey Azoulay, Tanzania’s president, and celebrities such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Jane Fonda and Michael Douglas.
• Starting in 1960 at Gombe in Tanzania, she transformed ethology by documenting tool use, omnivory and complex social behavior in chimpanzees.
• She founded the Jane Goodall Institute in 1977 and created the Roots & Shoots youth program in 1991 to advance conservation, education and animal rescue.
• A UN Messenger of Peace since 2002, she received major honors including the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Kyoto Prize and the Templeton Prize, and she continued global advocacy into her 90s.