Legendary primatologist and conservationist Jane Goodall’s relationship with National Geographic dates back to over 50 years ago, when she set out to study chimpanzee behavior in Gombe National Park in Tanzania. Her discoveries there revolutionized our understanding of humans and the natural world. When Jane died in October 2025, we felt a responsibility to celebrate and pay tribute to her incredible life and legacy, which has inspired so many of us at Nat Geo and beyond. While no social media tribute could fully do justice to Jane’s enormous impact, we quickly brought together teams across the organization to respond to the news, ensuring timely and accurate coverage. Our primary goal was to honor Jane’s work, giving a global audience the space to celebrate her life and share their memories utilizing all of our social media handles.
To represent the breadth of Jane Goodall’s life and career, we tapped into National Geographic’s extensive archive across disciplines. The main @NatGeo Instagram account led with a photo carousel incorporating images from throughout Jane’s life and official obituary. On Nat Geo television and doc film accounts, we posted a clip of Jane narrating beautiful archive footage from the 2017 documentary film, JANE, also collaborating with other National Geographic and Disney accounts. Over the following days, we continued to curate archival content and create new content celebrating Jane, including an in memoriam video, fun interview outtakes, iconic images, and editorial articles about her work, dating from 1965 to the present day.
The posts became some of the top performing social posts of the year on Nat Geo accounts overall, with millions of engagements. Audiences responded powerfully to assets featuring Jane Goodall. Comments included personal memories and gratitude toward her lifelong contributions to conservation and science, and a special thank you from the Jane Goodall Institute.
