Dian Fossey

Dian Fossey with Puck, a mountain gorilla, in Volcanoes National Park,
 Rwanda

Dian Fossey

Dian Fossey was a zoologist best known for researching the endangered gorillas of the Rwandan mountain forest from the 1960s to the '80s, and for her mysterious murder. 

Primatologist and naturalist Dian Fossey was born on January 16, 1932, in San Francisco, California, and grew up with her mother and stepfather. Developing an affinity for animals at a young age, throughout her youth, Fossey was an avid horseback rider and an aspiring veterinarian. However, after enrolling in pre-veterinary studies at the University of California, Davis, she transferred to San Jose State College and changed her major to occupational  therapy.

Dian Fossey with a young mountain gorilla in Rwanda, c.early 1980s.

 While working as an occupational therapist, Fossey became interested in primates during a trip to Africa in 1963. 

 She visited a camp operated by the famous research scientists Louis and Mary Leakey.  The Leakeys were best known for their studies of the development of human ancestors.

Fossey met with Louis Leakey and discussed the importance of scientific research on the great apes.  She decided to study mountain gorillas, which were in danger of disappearing.  Later on her trip, she traveled to the mountains of Rwanda.  This is where she first saw mountain gorillas.

She formed a small force to help guard mountain gorillas against humans.  She destroyed traps used to catch the animals.  She threatened the hunters and the people who helped them. National Geographic magazine published a report about her efforts.  Many people who read the story sent money to support the campaign.

n nineteen eighty, Fossey left Karisoke and accepted a position at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.   There, she began to write a book about her years with the mountain gorillas.  Her book was published in nineteen eighty-three.  It is called "Gorillas in the Mist."  By then, there were only about two hundred mountain gorillas in the world.

Dian Fossey made a large number of public appearances to publicize her book and the efforts to save the mountain gorillas.  Then she returned to Rwanda.  On December twenty-sixth, nineteen eighty-five, she was found murdered at her camp.  A few days later, her body was buried near the remains of some of her gorillas.

 Three years after her death, a major American motion picture based on her book was released. It is also called "Gorillas in the Mist."  It helped tell her story to millions of people around the world.

Dian Fossey kept a written record of her daily activities.  She wrote: When you understand the value of all life, you think less about what is past and think instead about the protection of the future.

Dian Fossey loved her work and used her research to help save the gorillas and their environment.  Today, the mountain gorilla population is increasing. Some people have said that without her efforts the animals would no longer exist.