British primatologist Jane Goodall dies at 91

British primatologist Jane Goodall died at the age of 91 from natural causes. The announcement was made on Wednesday (1) by the institute that bears her name. According to the organization, she was in California, United States, as part of a series of conferences in the country. Goodall may have been one of the last great examples of a phenomenon that has nearly disappeared in the modern world: that of self-taught individuals capable of revolutionizing science and humanity’s understanding of itself. The young British woman who dreamed of living among animals in Africa managed to reveal to the world the huge cognitive and behavioral closeness between chimpanzees and humans without any academic training, at least initially. Working in Gombe, Tanzania, since 1960, Goodall showed that the great apes made tools, had personalities, could hunt in an organized manner, and even engage in ‘wars’ against communities of the same species, among other discoveries. The British woman would become the cornerstone of the longest continuous field research on an animal community – studies in Gombe continue to this day, without interruption. She also became the greatest global ambassador of chimpanzees and other great apes (bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans), advocating for the preservation of these species and for the recognition of at least partially their individual rights, by analogy with human rights.