[5] She is the founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and the Roots & Shoots programme and has worked extensively on conservation and animal welfare issues.

Goodall has said her fondness for it sparked her early love of animals, commenting, "My mother's friends were horrified by this toy, thinking it would frighten me and give me nightmares."

[11] From there, she obtained work as a secretary, and acting on her friend's advice, she telephoned Louis Leakey,[12] the Kenyan archaeologist and palaeontologist, with no other thought than to make an appointment to discuss animals.

Leakey, believing that the study of existing great apes could provide indications of the behaviour of early hominids,[13] was looking for a chimpanzee researcher, though he kept the idea to himself.

After obtaining approval from his co-researcher and wife, British paleoanthropologist Mary Leakey, Louis sent Goodall to Olduvai Gorge in Tanganyika (now part of Tanzania), where he laid out his plans.

[21][1][11][22][23] Her thesis was completed in 1966 under the supervision of Robert Hinde on the Behaviour of free-living chimpanzees,[1] detailing her first five years of study at the Gombe Reserve.

[24][25] She found that "it isn't only human beings who have personality, who are capable of rational thought [and] emotions like joy and sorrow.

[25] Goodall insists that these gestures are evidence of "the close, supportive, affectionate bonds that develop between family members and other individuals within a community, which can persist throughout a life span of more than 50 years.

"[25] Goodall's research at Gombe Stream challenged two long-standing beliefs of the day: that only humans could construct and use tools, and that chimpanzees were vegetarians.

"[26][27][28] In contrast to the peaceful and affectionate behaviours she observed, Goodall also found an aggressive side of chimpanzee nature at Gombe Stream.

Its global youth program, Roots & Shoots, began in 1991 when a group of 16 local teenagers met with Goodall on her back porch in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

The TACARE project also supports young girls by offering them access to reproductive health education and through scholarships to finance their college tuition.

[47][48] Goodall is also on the advisory council for the world's largest chimpanzee sanctuary outside of Africa, Save the Chimps in Fort Pierce, Florida.

"[54] Goodall has also said: "Thousands of people who say they 'love' animals sit down once or twice a day to enjoy the flesh of creatures who have been treated with so little respect and kindness just to make more meat.

Goodall, alongside her foundation, collaborated with NASA to use satellite imagery from the Landsat series to remedy the effects of deforestation on chimpanzees and local communities in Western Africa by offering the villagers information on how to reduce activity and preserve their environment.

"I have for decades been concerned about factory farming, in part because of the tremendous harm inflicted on the environment, but also because of the shocking ongoing cruelty perpetuated on millions of sentient beings.

[69] She worked with a group of aspiring social entrepreneurs to create a workshop to engage young people in conserving biodiversity, and to tackle a perceived global lack of awareness of the issue.

[74] In August 2019, Goodall was honoured for her contributions to science with a bronze sculpture in Midtown Manhattan alongside nine other women, part of the Statues for Equality project.

[82] Goodall is known to support the possibility that undiscovered species of primates may still exist today, including cryptids such as Sasquatch, Yeren and other types of Bigfoot.

[83][84][85] In 2012, when the Huffington Post asked her about it, Goodall replied: "I'm fascinated and would actually love them to exist," adding, "Of course, it's strange that there has never been a single authentic hide or hair of the Bigfoot, but I've read all the accounts.

Her family were occasional churchgoers, but Goodall began attending more regularly as a teenager when the church appointed a new minister, Trevor Davies.

Of her later discovery of the atheism and agnosticism of many of her scientific colleagues, Goodall wrote that "[f]ortunately, by the time I got to Cambridge I was twenty-seven years old and my beliefs had already moulded so that I was not influenced by these opinions.

"[87] In her 1999 book Reason for Hope: A Spiritual Journey, Goodall describes the implications of a mystical experience she had at Notre Dame Cathedral in 1977: "Since I cannot believe that this was the result of chance, I have to admit anti-chance.

[90] In her foreword to the 2017 book The Intelligence of the Cosmos by Ervin Laszlo, a philosopher of science who advocates quantum consciousness theory, Goodall wrote: "we must accept that there is an Intelligence driving the process [of evolution], that the Universe and life on Earth are inspired and in-formed by an unknown and unknowable Creator, a Supreme Being, a Great Spiritual Power.

[93] Owing to his position in the Tanzanian government as head of the country's national park system, Bryceson could protect Goodall's research project and implement an embargo on tourism at Gombe.

[102] A reviewer for The Washington Post found unattributed sections that were copied from websites about organic tea and tobacco and an "amateurish astrology site", as well as from Wikipedia.

[103] Goodall apologised and stated, "It is important to me that the proper sources are credited, and I will be working diligently with my team to address all areas of concern.

[112][113] In 2010, Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds held a benefit concert at DAR Constitution Hall in Washington DC to commemorate "Gombe 50: a global celebration of Jane Goodall's pioneering chimpanzee research and inspiring vision for our future".

[119] In 2022, Dr. Goodall received the Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication for her long-term study of social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees.

[123] She delivered an optimistic message on conservation and the role that everyone can play in preserving our planet by educating youth and communities to protect and respect the natural world.