Victoria Gill<\/span>Science correspondent<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n She was a serene force of nature. And she never waivered in her mission to help the animals to which she dedicated her life.<\/p>\n When I interviewed Dame Jane Goodall last year, she exuded calm, even as she pressed home to me that a great extinction crisis was facing our planet.<\/p>\n Over a slightly blurry video call, I could see her toy monkey, Mr H, behind her.<\/p>\n That toy was given to her nearly 30 years ago by a friend. Dr Goodall, who was 90 years old when we spoke, was still travelling the world with Mr H at her side.<\/p>\n Researchers I’ve spoken to this evening, whose work Dr Goodall inspired, or who were simply inspired by her energy, are in shock at her death aged 91.<\/p>\n Professor Cat Hobaiter, from the University of St Andrews, who has worked with Chimpanzees – studying their communication – for more than 15 years, told me that one reason Dr Goodall had such an impact was that “she gave up doing what she loved – spending time with her beloved chimpanzees – to tirelessly travel the world and share her passion with everyone she met.”<\/p>\n In the many years that Jane Goodall observed and studied chimpanzees, she revolutionised our understanding of our closest primate cousins.<\/p>\n Key to her groundbreaking discoveries were her curiosity and ability – quietly – to observe.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n It was during her time in the rainforest reserve at Gombe, in Tanzania, when she stopped to spend time watching a male chimpanzee who was foraging. <\/p>\n The chimp took a twig, bent and stripped it of its leaves, then he poked it into a termite’s nest. He then used that stripped, bent twig to spoon the termites into his mouth.<\/p>\n That observation – in 1960 – challenged the belief that only humans made and used tools.<\/p>\n Even as she changed our understanding of the natural world, Dr Goodall faced cynicism and sexism. She was not formally trained as a scientist. And, in the 1960s, that was unusual.<\/p>\n Her work in Gombe went on to show that chimps also form strong family bonds – and even that they engage in warfare over territory.<\/p>\n But her approach \u2013 associating 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.<\/p>\n She had no formal scientific training. But she told me that her supervisor and mentor, Professor Louis Leakey, saw the value in her informality. <\/p>\n “He wanted somebody whose mind wasn’t messed up by the reductionist attitude of science to animals,” she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Now, the scientific establishment is reeling from the loss of a great scientist.<\/p>\n Adrian Smith, president of the Royal Society, described her as “an amazing scientist who inspired people to see the natural world in a new way”.<\/p>\n Roger Highfield, from the Science Museum in London, which awarded Dr Goodall a fellowship earlier this year, called her an “inspiration”.<\/p>\n “She was formidable and it’s incredibly shocking news, because she completely changed how we think about other species and how we think about ourselves – she challenged human exceptionalism,” he said.<\/p>\n Jane Goodall eventually turned her focus from her chimpanzees to spreading the word about protecting nature. <\/p>\n![\"Getty](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/8811\/live\/08e63490-9f06-11f0-bf4d-3be239c29483.jpg.webp\")
Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n![](\"https:\/\/static.files.bbci.co.uk\/bbcdotcom\/web\/20250919-090805-05e5ba0164-web-2.30.1-2\/grey-placeholder.png\")
![\"Getty](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/1e89\/live\/a0061a20-9f06-11f0-bf4d-3be239c29483.jpg.webp\")
Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n