Jane Goodall, chimpanzee expert and animal rights campaigner, dies age 91 – follow live

Image source, CBS via Getty Images

Dr Jane Goodall was best known as a primatologist who revolutionised the study of wild chimpanzees.

When Jane Goodall first went to Africa to study chimpanzees at the age of 26, she had no formal scientific training – but still managed to win the trust of the primates, leading to groundbreaking observations.

Her discoveries would not just revolutionise our understanding of animal behaviour but reshape the way we define ourselves as human beings.

Although she was just 26 years old at the time, Jane Goodall had long dreamt of studying and living with animals.

“Apparently, from the time I was about one and a half or two, I used to study insects, anything, and this gradually evolved and developed and grew and then I read books like Dr Dolittle and Tarzan, then it had to be Africa that was my goal,” she told the BBC’s Terry Wogan on his talk show in 1986.