British primatologist Jane Goodall imitated chimpanzees, sat with them in trees and shared their bananas during her trail-blazing research in Tanzania into the apes' true nature.

Acclaimed for her discoveries she later morphed into a wildlife crusader, criss-crossing the world to plead the cause of human's closest ape relatives and the wider planet.

She died, aged 91, while conducting a speaking tour in the United States, her institute said Wednesday.

Clad in her classic collared shirt and shorts, binoculars in hand, Goodall transformed human understanding of chimpanzees.

She was the first researcher to give them names, rather than numbers.

She was also the first scientist to observe that the apes, like humans, use tools and feel emotions.

Fellow naturalist and friend David Attenborough told Britain's Daily Telegraph in 2010 she was "a woman who had turned the world of zoology upside down".

Her scientific breakthroughs "have profoundly altered the world's view of animal intelligence and enriched our understanding of humanity", the head of the US-based John Templeton Foundation........

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