Fatma Zehra Solmaz
03 October 2025•Update: 06 October 2025
ISTANBUL
World leaders, colleagues, and admirers on Thursday mourned renowned primatologist Jane Goodall after her institute announce that she had died at the age of 91.
Goodall spent her life researching chimpanzees and other great apes, emerging as a leading voice for primates and global conservation.
She challenged several long-held assumptions, including that primates were strictly vegetarian and that tool use was unique to humans.
According to her institute, she passed away in her sleep of natural causes while on a speaking tour in Los Angeles, prompting tributes from around the world.
“Jane Goodall had a remarkable ability to inspire us to connect with the natural wonders of our world, and her groundbreaking work on primates and the importance of conservation opened doors for generations of women in science,” said former US President Barack Obama on US social media company X.
Referring to his wife, Obama added: “Michelle and I are thinking of all those who loved and admired her.”
'An extraordinary voice'
Prince William of Britain, Goodall’s home country, said that the world had lost “an extraordinary voice.”
“Her boundless curiosity, compassion and pioneering spirit transformed our understanding of the natural world. She challenged us all to make a difference and inspired me and countless others to work to protect our planet. Jane Goodall made a difference,” he wrote in a statement.
Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan described Goodall as “a friend of Tanzania,” honoring her decades of groundbreaking research at Gombe National Park, founded in 1968.
“With great sorrow, I have received the news of the passing of Dr. Jane Goodall,” she wrote on X, calling her “a renowned zoologist, primatologist, researcher and a friend of Tanzania.”
Hassan said Goodall’s pioneering work “transformed wildlife conservation, and placed our country at the heart of global efforts to protect chimpanzees and nature.”
She added: “Her legacy will live on. May she Rest in Peace.”
Apple chief executive Tim Cook called Goodall “a groundbreaking scientist and leader who taught us all so much about the beauty and wonder of our world. She never stopped advocating for nature, people, and the planet we share. May she rest in peace.”
Goodall, born April 3, 1934 in Hampstead, London, rose to international prominence with her pioneering 60-year study of wild chimpanzees at Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania. Her observations of tool use, social hierarchies, and emotional bonds among chimpanzees challenged long-held beliefs about the divide between humans and animals.
