The Late Dr. Jane Goodall Had an Impressive Net Worth

Fans are mourning the loss of the legendary primatologist and ethologist, Dr. Jane Goodall. She was known for her work studying chimpanzees since the 1960s, as well as her work as a UN Messenger of Peace. She was also the founder of the Jane Goodall Institute. Her death on Oct. 1, 2025, was announced on Instagram.

"The Jane Goodall Institute has learned this morning, Wednesday, October 1, 2025, that Dr. Jane Goodall DBE, UN Messenger of Peace and Founder of the Jane Goodall Institute, has passed away due to natural causes," read the post. "She was in California as part of her speaking tour in the United States. Dr. Goodall’s discoveries as an ethologist revolutionized science, and she was a tireless advocate for the protection and restoration of our natural world."

Fans of the famous scientist are mourning her passing and wondering what her net worth is after so many decades of working with primates.

According to Celebrity Net Worth, Jane had a net worth of $5 million. The British native was a world-renowned primatologist, ethologist, and anthropologist who studied chimpanzees in Tanzania, East Africa, at the Gombe Stream Reserve.

Jane told People about her arrival in Africa with her mother back in 1960.

"I was off up the slopes hoping to find some chimpanzees," she recalled. "Mom was left behind with our slightly inebriated cook to let air into our tent. In came air, but also spiders and big snakes and baboons."

"So, there was poor Mom with these male baboons with their big teeth trying to get our food," she said. "People say, 'Oh, you were brave, Jane.' No. I was doing what I'd always wanted to do. She was the brave one."

Jane left Tanzania in 1962 to study at Cambridge University and earned a Ph.D. in ethology. She was the eighth person who was be allowed to study for a doctorate without a college degree.

According to ABC News, her work with chimpanzees proved that primates have similar behaviors to human beings, like having individual personalities. She also showed the world that the chimps can make and use their own tools, embrace, and hold hands.

"Their behavior, with their gestures, kissing, embracing, holding hands, and patting on the back, the fact that they can actually be violent," she said. "And brutal and have a kind of war, but also loving and altruistic."

The Jane Goodall Institute said that Jane's "discoveries as an ethologist revolutionized science, and she was a tireless advocate for the protection and restoration of our natural world."

Jane founded the Jane Goodall Institute in 1977, and it has offices in 25 cities worldwide dedicated to improving the treatment of primates, as well as to better understand primates, by providing legal representation, as well as public education. She was named United Nations Messenger of Peace back in 2002.

Dr. Goodall has received many honors for her life's work — including the French Legion of Honor, the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom, and Japan's Kyoto Prize. Jane is survived by her son, Hugo Eric Louis van Lawick.