🔗 Share this article

She stood as a serene natural presence. Her dedication never faltered in her purpose to protect the animals to which she committed her career.

Speaking with Dame Jane Goodall last year, she exuded calm, even as she pressed home that a mass extinction event was facing our planet.

Over a slightly blurry video call, I could see her stuffed primate, Mr H, positioned beside her.

The figure was gifted to her nearly 30 years ago by a friend. Dr Goodall, who was nine decades old when we spoke, was still journeying globally with Mr H by her side.

Experts I've spoken to this night, whose work Dr Goodall influenced, or who were simply inspired by her passion, are in shock at her death aged 91.

Dr Goodall made such a difference because "she gave up doing what she loved - observing her adored apes - to persistently move the world and share her passion with everyone she met."

Pioneering Observations

In the extended period that Jane Goodall observed and studied chimpanzees, she radically altered our perception of our closest primate cousins.

Fundamental to her innovative discoveries were her inquisitiveness and skill - methodically - to watch.

It was during her period in the forest preserve at Gombe, in Tanzania, when she took time to watch a chimp who was foraging.

The primate took a twig, curved and cleaned it of its vegetation, then he poked it into a insect mound.

He then used that stripped, bent twig to gather the termites into his eating orifice.

That discovery - in 1960 - disputed the assumption that only mankind created and utilized tools.

Facing Adversity

Even as she transformed our understanding of the wildlife, Dr Goodall encountered doubt and gender bias.

She was not formally trained as a scientist. And, in the 1960s, that was atypical.

Her work in Gombe subsequently demonstrated that chimpanzees also create tight kinship ties - and even that they participate in conflicts over domain.

But her methodology – interacting so intimately with the animals she studied, giving them identities and even referring to them as "my friends" - made her controversial with the predominantly male scientific field.

She had no traditional research education. But she told me that her guide and teacher, Professor Louis Leakey, saw the worth in her informality.

"He desired somebody whose perspective wasn't influenced by the narrow viewpoint of traditional research to creatures," she said.

Enduring Impact

Now, the academic world is processing the death of a extraordinary pioneer.

Jane Goodall eventually turned her attention from her primates to promoting awareness about conserving wildlife.

When she communicated with me, she was advocating a reforestation and ecosystem renewal mission that her namesake organization was implementing in Uganda.

"We still have a window of time to reduce global warming and loss of biodiversity," she said at the time. "But it's a opportunity that's closing."

One of the numerous researchers Dr Goodall inspired commented: "Jane would be the first person to tell us that what the world needs right now is not grief over her loss, but to get to work.

"We all have a important tasks to complete to guarantee that we are not the last generation to coexist with wild chimpanzees."

Dr Goodall was described as "an amazing scientist who inspired people to see the wildlife in a fresh perspective".

She was formidable and it's incredibly shocking news, because she radically altered how we understand other species and how we view ourselves - she disputed anthropocentric views.