Jane Goodall, 1934-2025

Yesterday, the conservation community lost one of its leading lights with the passing of Dr. Jane Goodall at age 91.  Goodall was, of course, best known for her groundbreaking research on chimpanzees in Tanzania's Gombe Forest Reserve, research which completely upended everything we thought we knew about our closest living relatives.  As her career advanced, however, she transitioned into an advocacy role, not only for chimps, but for animals - wild, captive, and domestic - across the globe.  (I recommend Dale Peterson's Jane Goodall: The Woman Who Redefined Man, as an excellent biography of her; she and Peterson had collaborated on other works together).

Over the course of her storied career, Dr. Goodall became closely involved in the zoo community.  Her work allowed zoos to greatly improve the way that chimps and other apes are managed in human care, and she frequently made a point of visiting zoos in her travels and offering praise and support where she felt it was due (she was also opposed to the keeping of certain species in captivity, especially cetaceans, a view which I know several other keepers to share - but she also speculated that, given the choice, many wild chimps might prefer a better zoo to the vanishing wild).  While I've never met her - only attended one of her speeches in a large audience, hence the mediocre photo above - many primate keepers I've known have had that privilege, and all found her to be one of the kindest and most genuine humans they've ever known. 

Today is a hard day for many folks around the world, mourning the loss of a hero.  It's also a hard day for the world's wildlife, even if they don't know it, as they've lost one of their most vocal champions.