What species did Jane Goodall famously study?

Jane Goodall famously studied chimpanzees. Her pioneering fieldwork transformed scientific understanding of chimpanzee behavior and helped show how closely their social lives resemble those of humans.

Goodall began observing wild chimpanzees at Gombe Stream in 1960 after the anthropologist Louis Leakey helped arrange the project. Rather than treating the animals as interchangeable research subjects, she gave them names and recorded distinct personalities, family relationships, alliances, conflicts, and emotional behaviors.

One of her most important discoveries was that chimpanzees use tools. She observed them stripping grass stems and inserting them into termite mounds to extract insects, challenging the once-common belief that tool-making separated humans from all other animals. She also documented hunting, meat-eating, grooming, cooperation, and long-lasting social bonds.

The other choices are associated with famous primatologists: Dian Fossey studied gorillas, while Birutė Galdikas studied orangutans. Bonobos are close relatives of chimpanzees, but they were not Goodall’s signature research subject.