Jane Goodall’s work with chimps changed how we see humanity

Jane Goodall, an iconic figure in conservation whose work transformed human-animal relations, is perhaps best known for the trailblazing research she carried out with chimpanzees at Gombe Stream National Park, in what is now Tanzania. Almost everyone reading this will recognize the slender, ponytailed figure who became a close friend and protector of the simian species most closely related to ours. Goodall died on Wednesday at age 91, reportedly of natural causes, while on a speaking tour in California.

If Reddit is to be believed, a “Far Side” cartoon in 1987 that made impolite suggestions about Goodall’s relationships with chimps earned cartoonist Gary Larson an angry letter from the executive director of the Jane Goodall Institute. But Goodall herself, like many scientists, was a “Far