Jane Goodall, conservationist and worldwide primate expert, dies at 91

British wildlife conservationist Jane Goodall, who earned worldwide recognition as a leading expert on primates, died on Wednesday morning, the non-profit organisation she founded said. She was 91 years old.

She died of natural causes in California while on a speaking tour of the United States, the Jane Goodall Institute said in a social media post.

“Dr Goodall’s discoveries as an ethologist revolutionised science, and she was a tireless advocate for the protection and restoration of our natural world,” the institute said.

Goodall, born in 1934, developed an early fascination for wildlife that spurred her to move from England to Africa to understand the behaviour of chimpanzees, and then become a global advocate for ecological conservation.

She grew up in the English town of Bournemouth, and said her love for animals was sparked first by a toy gorilla gifted to her by her father, and subsequently, by books such as Tarzan and Dr Dolittle.

She travelled to Kenya by boat in 1957, where she met palaeontologist Louis Leakey and his wife, archaeologist Mary Leakey, Reuters reported. The meetings spurred her to work on primates.

Under Leakey, Goodall went on to set up the Gombe Stream Chimpanzee Reserve in present-day Tanzania. At the reserve, she discovered that chimpanzees eat meat, engage in fierce warfare and even make tools...

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