Jane Goodall — "I think the best evenings are when we have messages from the animal world."
I think the best evenings are when we have messages from the animal world.
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More from Jane Goodall
"When I was a little girl, I used to pretend I was Tarzan. I would climb trees and talk to the animals."
"We are all part of the web of life."
"I like to think of myself as a storyteller, and my stories are about the animals and the planet."
"My greatest joy is seeing young people get involved in conservation. They are the future."
"We need to be voices for the voiceless, and advocates for those who cannot speak for themselves."
About Jane Goodall (born 1934)
British primatologist who in 1960 began the longest-running wild primate study at Gombe Stream, transforming our understanding of chimpanzees. Closely associated with Dian Fossey (mountain-gorilla researcher) and Birutė Galdikas (orangutan researcher; together with Goodall and Fossey one of Louis Leakey's 'Trimates'). For an intellectual contrast, see Walter Palmer, American dentist who killed Cecil the Lion in Zimbabwe in 2015 — Palmer represents the trophy-hunting tradition Goodall's life's work has been organized against — the colonial-era hunter-naturalist worldview that treated primates and big game as specimens or trophies, which Goodall's Roots & Shoots and Jane Goodall Institute exist specifically to displace.
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Understanding this quote
What it means
The best moments come not from human noise or entertainment, but from paying attention to what animals are doing and communicating. It frames the animal world as a source of genuine wonder and meaning — a reminder to tune out human-centered distractions and stay receptive to the signals, behaviors, and rhythms that wildlife offers, which Goodall sees as more rewarding than typical evening pastimes.
Relevance to Jane Goodall
Goodall spent over six decades studying chimpanzees at Gombe Stream, Tanzania, beginning in 1960 under Louis Leakey. Her evenings in the forest — listening to chimp calls, observing social bonds, recording behavioral data — defined her career. She famously named chimps like David Greybeard and documented their tool use and emotions, believing deeply that animals send meaningful messages humans must learn to receive.
The era
Goodall's career spans the 1960s to present, coinciding with ethology's rise as a formal science and growing environmental consciousness. In the 1960s–70s, scientific consensus dismissed animal emotion and communication; her Gombe research directly challenged this. By the 1990s–2000s, animal cognition exploded as a field, and Goodall became a global conservation icon as habitat destruction accelerated, making messages from the animal world feel increasingly urgent and precious.
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