the primatologist who revolutionized the study of chimpanzees

His real name Valérie Jane Morris-Goodall (1934-2025), Jane discovered Africa at 22, in Kenya during a holiday stay. A little later, she became the assistant of an archaeologist in Tanzania. And that’s how she met the chimpanzees, first in the fossils and then, very alive, near Lake Tanganyika.

On the recommendations of her mentor, she started a field study, first under the protection of her own mother, then alone. A long observation work in the face of these wild animals from the Tanzanian bomb reserve

A revolution in the study of the living

Without a university degree, the young woman took an approach which allowed her to discover the singularity and the personality of each animal studied. This is how Jane understood that the chimpanzees used tools for food, that family ties were strong and decisive in these groups, while decrypting part of their language. A revolution in its time, definitively changing the way in which animals were taken into account by the scientific world.

Supported by National Geographic magazine, the one who, in the meantime had become a doctor of ethology in Cambridge, given the quality of his unprecedented work, will start to be known by publishing articles, works and films, fruit of his work. Over the years, his passion has turned into militancy, multiplying official prices and recognitions and finally becoming an international figure in environmental defense, wild ecosystems and the animal populations they contain.

Privacy and commitments

With her bun bringing her white hair, this woman of frail appearance knew how to enthron her audience over the anecdotes and discoveries that she reported, always in a soft voice, a little hoarse, and equipped with a firm and disarming smile. Jane lived with two men over her life.

For ten years, she shared her passion with photographer Hugo Van Lawick, who was captivated by her work. Union of which a son was born. After her divorce in 1974, Jane remarried with a member of the Tanzania Parliament, Derek Bryceson who was also director of the country’s national parks. The man died five years later from cancer.