A remarkable life: Dame Jane Goodall has died, aged 91

photo via the Jane Goodall Institute

{AP 1 October} Jane Goodall, conservationist known for chimpanzee research, dies at 91

Jane Goodall, born in London on 3 April 1934, has assured her place among England’s immortals. By decamping to the steaming tangles of Gombe and mucking in with the apes, this great lady unravelled the smug fiction that man was some sacred, tool-wielding exception. Her chimps whittled sticks, formed alliances, and wept for their dead — and with that, the neat wall between ‘us’ and ‘them’ crumbled.

But Jane Goodall was not content to scribble footnotes for zoologists; she spent the rest of her life pleading with the world not to turn every last scrap of wilderness into a strip-mine. Noble work, doomed of course, given the human talent for short-sighted vandalism.

Still, there’s something touching in her stubbornness — a luminous, bloody-minded emblem of curiosity, decency, and hope, however misplaced. She is gone now, and the planet is no less doomed for her efforts, but infinitely richer for her having tried. Rest in peace, dear lady. —Arthur Newhook, 1 October 2025.

Copyright 2025, Arthur Newhook. On X-TWITTER: @Sunking278 and @DollsFallen. REDDIT - https://www.reddit.com/user/SiberianKhatru278/. BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social. FULL LIST OF LINKS - linktr.ee/arthurnewhook. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED on Cash App ($ANewhook), PayPal (paypal.me/Sunking278), and at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.