Overview

• The Jane Goodall Institute said she died of natural causes in the Los Angeles area while on a U.S. speaking tour.
• Police told NBC4 that emergency crews responded around 8:30 a.m. to a medical call at her home and found no foul play.
• Her decades of fieldwork at Gombe Stream National Park documented tool making, hunting, social bonds and emotional behaviors in chimpanzees, reshaping primatology.
• She founded the Jane Goodall Institute in 1977 and launched Roots & Shoots, which engages young people in conservation projects worldwide.
• Goodall was a UN Messenger of Peace, was made a Dame in 2003, received the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2025, and drew tributes from global leaders and organizations.