Jane Goodall: A Life Dedicated to Science, Environmentalism, and Humbling Men’s Egos

In her own words, "I'd have been much better as a mate for Tarzan myself—which is true. I would have been."

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Jane Goodall: A Life Dedicated to Science, Environmentalism, and Humbling Men’s Egos

On Wednesday, October 1, the animal kingdom lost one of its fiercest lifelong advocates: Jane Goodall died at the age of 91. The conservation organization she founded in 1977, the Jane Goodall Institute, announced her passing via social media, writing, “Dr. Goodall’s discoveries as an ethologist revolutionized science, and she was a tireless advocate for the protection and restoration of our natural world.” 

In a 1990 interview with Terry Gross on Fresh Air, Goodall credited her early obsession with chimpanzees to Tarzan books. “I was terribly jealous of Tarzan’s Jane. I thought she was a wimp and I’d have been much better as a mate for Tarzan myself — which is true. I would have been.” After a childhood raised in London, a love of animals brought her to a friend’s farm in Kenya in 1957, where she soon became acquainted with paleontologist Louis Leakey. Not long after Leakey hired the 26-year-old Goodall as his secretary, he recommended she study chimpanzees in Tanzania’s Gombe Stream National Park. There, she made the groundbreaking discovery that chimpanzees make and use tools, defying the long-held belief that only humans possess that trait. Right off the bat, Goodall was humbling men’s egos, which we, of course, love. Leakey said of this revelation, “Now we must redefine man, redefine tool, or accept chimpanzees as humans!” 

Goodall’s more personable approach to her research was a shock to the male-dominated field at the time. “When, in the early 1960s, I brazenly used such words as ‘childhood’, ‘adolescence’, ‘motivation’, ‘excitement’, and ‘mood’ I was much criticized,” she wrote in The Great Ape Project in 1993. “Even worse was my crime of suggesting that chimpanzees had ‘personalities’. I was ascribing human characteristics to nonhuman animals and was thus guilty of that worst of ethological sins—anthropomorphism.” But the sociable manner with which she discussed her work and her writing in National Geographic introduced her to a larger audience, ultimately helping her become a household name. I, for one, am much more eager to read about a primate named David Greybeard or Fifi than simply “Chimpanzee #7.” (Numbering subjects was standard identification before Goodall.)

@callherdaddy

Oh how times have stayed the same 😅 @Dr. Jane Goodall & JGI

♬ original sound – Call Her Daddy

Of course, some of her male peers found issues with her rise in popularity. In an interview with Alex Cooper on a May episode of Call Her Daddy (a truly mind-boggling modern-day collab), Goodall recalled one man saying, “they wouldn’t put her on the cover [of National Geographic] if she didn’t have nice legs.” “Back then, all I wanted to do was get back to the chimps, so if my legs were getting me the money, ‘thank you legs.’”

That dedication to understanding primates developed into a lifelong commitment to environmentalism, animal conservation, and combating climate change. In her lifetime, she wrote 32 books, petitioned for animal rights across the globe, and founded the Jane Goodall Institute, the Tchimpounga Chimpanzee Rehabilitation Centre, and the youth environmental organization Roots & Shoots. She was also known to travel for work up to 300 days of the year—despite her age. Her death came in the middle of a U.S. speaking tour. It can’t be overstated how unique it was then—and even now—to have a rockstar female scientist (not to mention, just a scientist) be a household name.

In 2017, Goodall, who was then 83, spoke with Jezebel to promote her conservation masterclass. Along with a slight dig at President Trump (“The ones who do the swaggering don’t last as long.”), she shared her steadfast belief in the dignity of working towards a more environmentally just future. “I travel around the world all the time and I meet so many incredible people doing amazing things, blazing trails, working with the poor, working on environmental issues, working on solar, seeing areas that were totally destroyed,” she said.  “But given time, given a bit of help, [people] are once again supporting life and biodiversity beginning to come back.”

Jane, thank you for the glimmers of hope, the lifetime of dedication to causes you found worthy, and for showing us that we’re more similar than different to our precious animal neighbors. Because of her research, we know that those chimpanzees are able to feel the same grief that the scientific world does in this moment.


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