Jane Goodall, a leading conservationist and primatologist, has died at the age of 91 in California. Goodall was responsible for improving scientific understanding of chimpanzees through her approach of living with the animals being studied.
While using this research technique in the 1960s in Tanzania, Goodall was criticized by other scientists who had only conducted remote observations. By living among chimpanzees, Goodall found that the apes can show emotions, have their own personalities and use tools to perform tasks like humans.
The discovery of chimpanzees using tools is one of the biggest because until now only humans were believed to have this ability. She also discovered that chimpanzees can grieve the death of a family member like humans.
In addition to improving understanding of primates, the deceased was also an activist on climate change. From the 1970s until the end of her life, Goodall produced dozens of documentaries about primates and how development was destroying their habitat. She even died in California while replanting trees destroyed in the California fires.
As Generation X people, Jane Goodall and David Attenborough are two giants responsible for introducing children to the beauty of the wild animal world and why it needs to be preserved through series on National Geographic.