Dame Jane Goodall revolutionised our understanding of our closest primate cousins

She was a serene force of nature. And she never wavered in her mission to help the animals she dedicated her life to.

When I interviewed Dame Jane Goodall last year, she radiated calm even as she insisted that our planet was facing a great extinction crisis.

During a slightly blurry video call, I saw her toy monkey, Mr. X, behind her.

A friend gave her this toy almost 30 years ago. Dr. Goodall, who was 90 years old when we spoke, was still traveling the world with Mr. X.

Researchers I spoke with this evening whose work was inspired by Dr. Goodall or who were simply inspired by her energy are shocked by her death at the age of 91.

Professor Kath Hobaiter of the University of St Andrews, who has worked with chimpanzees studying their communication for over 15 years, told me that one of the reasons Dr Goodall had such an impact was because “she gave up what she loved – spending time with her beloved chimpanzees – to tirelessly travel the world and share her passion with everyone she loved.” she met.”

In the many years that Jane Goodall observed and studied chimpanzees, she revolutionized our understanding of our closest primate relatives.

The key to her innovative discoveries was her curiosity and ability to quietly observe.

It was during her stay in the Gombe Rainforest Reserve in Tanzania when she stopped to watch a male chimpanzee foraging for food.

The chimpanzee took a branch, bent it and cleared it of leaves, and then put it into a termite nest. He then used this torn, bent branch to put the termites into his mouth.

This observation, made in 1960, challenged the belief that only humans create and use tools.

Even as she changed our understanding of the natural world, Dr. Goodall faced cynicism and sexism. She had no formal training as a scientist. And this was unusual for the 1960s.

Her work in Gombe showed that chimpanzees also form strong family bonds and even engage in turf wars.

But her approach – communicating so closely with the animals she studied, naming them and even referring to them as “my friends” – made her unpopular with the male-dominated scientific establishment.

Her supervisor and mentor, Professor Louis Leakey, saw value in this informality.

“He wanted someone whose mind wasn't confused by science's reductionist attitude towards animals,” she said.

Now the scientific establishment is experiencing the loss of a great scientist.

Adrian Smith, president of the Royal Society, described her as “an amazing scientist who has inspired people to look at the natural world in new ways.”

Roger Highfield of the Science Museum in London, which awarded Dr Goodall a fellowship earlier this year, called her an “inspiration”.

“She was formidable and it's incredibly shocking news because she completely changed the way we think about other species and ourselves – she challenged human exceptionalism,” he said.

Jane Goodall eventually turned her attention from her chimpanzees to spreading the word about conservation.

When she talked to me about BBC Inside Science in 2024She promoted the tree planting and habitat restoration mission her eponymous foundation was doing in Uganda.

“We still have time to slow climate change and biodiversity loss,” she said at the time. “But that window is closing.”

Professor Hobaiter, one of many scientists inspired by Dr Goodall, told me: “Jane will be the first person to tell us that what the world needs now is not sadness over her loss, but an opportunity to get to work.

“We all have a lot to do to make sure we are not the last generation living alongside wild chimpanzees.”