Jane Goodall: An Earth Day SpeciaL

Jane in Gombe, Tanzania

This week, in honor of Earth Day, April 22nd, The Lance is featuring ethologist and environmental activist, and conservationist, Dr. Jane Goodall. Jane Goodall spent much of her life studying chimpanzees in Gombe, Tanzania, a place located in Eastern Africa.

She was born in Bournemouth, England, in 1934 and was present for the entirety of World War II, which shaped much of her early life and her ideology further. Jane was raised by her mother and grandmother in the English countryside due to the war, where she developed a love for animals and observing their behaviors. Jane then later went on to become a brilliant scientist, humanitarian, author, mother, and a wonderful example for young girls everywhere. 

Gombe Stream National Park

 In Jane’s autobiography, Reason for Hope: A Spiritual Journey, published in 1999, she recounts the trials and events that occurred before she was able to begin her famous research of chimpanzees. She started her research expedition in 1960 at the age of 26. Goodall started her escapade when she traveled to Nairobi, Kenya, where she met Dr. Louis Leakey, a British paleoanthropologist and archeologist. At this time, the most scientifically acceptable answer of the definition of a human was that humans are the only species to use tools. Scientists thought this trait of using tools was the most intellectual and most evolutionary skill that separates humans from animals. Dr. Leakey offered Jane a job at the National History Museum before being asked to lead a research project on chimpanzees in Gombe, Tanzania.

At this time, Jane had only her certification from secretarial school, which she received after graduating from high school. She had no formal scientific education beyond her own personal research of the animals, terrain, and lifestyle in Africa, with which she had been enamored since she was a child. However, this did not deter Dr. Leakey, as he believed her lack of formal education was important because it excluded her from the bias that many other scientific researchers (mostly men at this point in time) had been predisposed to. Jane observed in the first year that a chimpanzee using a twig to retrieve termites was a perfect example that a human cannot be defined by their ability to use tools alone. There must be some other evolutionary difference.

Jane and her childhood toy, Jubliee

Among gender barriers, Jane also encountered trials such as disease, kidnapping, cannibalistic chimpanzees that decimated numbers of researchable primates, as well as human trials of love, loss, divorce, and motherhood. In her autobiography, we are able to see the more humanistic side of Jane, not as commonly featured in biographies. Jane also highlights her religious journey and the ability for religion to coexist with science and the theory of evolution, the premise of her research and career. 

Beyond her scientific revolutions and her many accomplishments, Dr. Goodall was also a conservationist focused on the end of deforestation and the rehabilitation and protection of primates as a species. Jane Goodall passed away in October of 2025, at the age of 91, but has significantly impacted the academic and scientific community in the fields of both evolution and human studies. She is a role model for many children, and her legacy continues to promote the protection of natural resources as well as equality and compassion for others.