Students gathered in Pasadena on October 1, 2025, expecting to hear the famous anthropologist talk about protecting the environment and how young people have died to change the world, but Goodall died that day in Los, and the cause of death was natural.
Months before his death, Goodwall had written something. He sat alone in front of the camera of the famous last words on Netflix, a series in which public figures record conversations about the spirit shortly after death. Goodall talked about hope, carelessness, his life, and what he believed about death.
“I want to make sure you all understand that each and every one of you has a role to play,” Hownload said. “Your life matters, and you’re here for a reason. Every single day you live, you make a difference in the world, and you get to choose the difference you make.”
From London to Kenya
Goodall was born in London in 1934. At the age of 8, he read Tarzan books and fell in love with Africa. He wanted to live among wild animals and write about them. Everyone laughed except for his mother, who told him that determination and hard work can make it happen.
His family had no money for college. Goodall attended secretarial school in South Kensington and took any jobs he could find, waiting tables and working for a film company. Every penny counts. In 1956, his friend invited him to visit Kenya. At 23, he jumped at the chance and bought a single ferry ticket.
Nairobi welcomed him in March 1957. Louis Leakey, a famous paleoamplologist at the museum of nature, was the first. The nomination turned into a daily offering that day. Leakey hired her as his secretary. IT’S NOT FREE, but years of studying Africa and animals meant he could answer his questions with depth and enthusiasm.
The worker opened the doors. Goodall went with Leakey, his wife, and another young woman to the Serengeti and Oldeluvai Gorge. He saw giraffes, zebras, wildebeests, rhinoceroses, and a small lion that followed for some distance. Leakey watched as he moved to the area. He realized that he was the person he had been looking for.
Chimpanzees
Leakey wanted someone to study wild chimpanzees at the Gombe Stream Game Reserve in Tanzania. He believed that Goodwall’s lack of formal training would help him to be aware without Academic Bias. The British authorities refused to let the young woman enter the tree alone, so her mother joined her.
Goodall arrived on July 14, 1960, at the age of 26. He caught malaria soon after and spent weeks crossing the harsh terrain without finding any chimpanzees. When they finally showed up, they ran away. He wore the same clothes every day, watched from the rocky cliff, and waited.
The old man finally took a look. He called him David Greybeard. Investigators see this as Taboo. They used numbers, not words. But Godall believes that each chimpanzee had a personality. David Greybeard accepted him, and the others began to tolerate his presence.
One day, he looked at the strip leaves that sprouted from the head of the fish from the mound. He was making a tool. Leakey telegraphed. “Now we have to rediscover the tool that ‘re-defines’ the human, ‘or accepts chimpanzees as human. “
Finding ideas that have been held for a long time. Chimpanzees hunt, make tools, and show complex emotions. They kiss, embrace, and form lasting friendships. They also organized wars against neighboring groups.
Godall entered the doctoral program at Cambridge in 1962 without a degree. Many scholars rejected his emotional and unscientific approach, but he received his PhD in 1965 and continued his research in Gombe for two decades.
Seeing Destruction
Goodall founded the Jane Goodall Institute in 1977 by Genevieve di San Faustino to protect cheetahs and their habitats through research, conservation and education. Work felt important but managed. Then, in 1986 he changed everything.
He attended a primatology conference in Chicago that year. Every presenter mentioned the same problem. Deforestation is destroying chimpanzee habitat in study areas around the world. He flew past Gombe after the conference and saw what was happening on the other side of the park. Miles of bare hills stretched where forests once stood. He could no longer see. And he had to do.
The center grew. In 1991, he started Roots & Shoots, a youth program that encourages young people to take action on environmental and human issues in their communities. Today, this center has offices in 25 cities around the world. Roots & Offshoots operates in over 60 countries.
Jane Goodall’s natural cause
Goodlall spent the last few years traveling about 300 days a year. He spoke all over the world, met with leaders, visited schools and universities. In January 2025, President Joe Beriden presented him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He had been named a peace envoy and commander of the British Empire, and he also wrote many books.
Jane Goodall lived a long, full life, and the cause of her death was natural. His transmission reflected the peaceful rhythm of life of a life anchored by curiosity, compassion and dedication to the world he loves.
In Gombe, there is still one chimpanzee who knew him from the beginning. Fifi was a small child when Godall arrived in the year 1960. Now she is the last link to those early years when a young woman with no scientific training went into the forest and changed that means she is human. Gombe’s research continues today as one of the most famous wild animal races in history.
In a 1999 NPR interview, Terry Gross asked if he liked chimps or people. Goodull’s response summed up his lifestyle: “CHIMPS are so like us that I love other people more than chimps, and more weapons than other people.”
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