In what year was Jane Goodall born?

Jane Goodall was born in 1934.

She was born Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall on 3 April 1934 in Hampstead, London, England. Her early fascination with animals helped shape the career that later made her one of the world’s best-known primatologists and conservationists.

Goodall grew up partly in Bournemouth, where she developed a strong interest in Africa and wildlife. Her father gave her a realistic chimpanzee toy named Jubilee, which became a cherished childhood possession and is often mentioned in accounts of her early love of animals.

In 1957, Goodall travelled to Kenya and met the anthropologist Louis Leakey. He later encouraged her to study wild chimpanzees at what is now Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania. She began that fieldwork in 1960, at age 26, without a university degree, and eventually earned a PhD in ethology from Cambridge University in 1966.

A common mix-up is placing her birth in the late 1930s. The year 1934 is supported by biographies and official records, while 1960 refers to the beginning of her famous Gombe research.