Page 20 - All About History - Issue 26-15

Animals & Man

Top 5 facts

DIANFOSSEY

THE FEARLESS ZOOLOGIST WHO FOUGHT

FOR GORILLAS IN THE MIST

DIAN FOSSEY
Nationality: American
Born: 16 January 1932
Died: 26 December 1985

Known for her
Brief pioneering work
in studying the
01 SHE RISKED EVERYTHING TO GO TO AFRICA Bio endangered gorillas of
the Rwandan mountain
forest,Fosseywasarenowned
Fossey had a secure job working as director of the zoologist. Fossey recorded her
experiences with the gorillas in
Kosair Crippled Children’s Hospital occupational therapy her book Gorillas In The Mist,
whichwaslaterturnedintoa
department before her trip. However, in order to embark film.In1985,aged53,Fossey
was found bludgeoned to death
on her first visit to Africa, she had to spend her entire inhercabinintheRwandan
mountains. Her mysterious
life savings, as well as taking out a hefty bank loan. murder remains unsolved.

Her camp drove Her career did not She battled constantly She’s attracted
02 students away 03 start smoothly 04 with poachers 05 controversy
Fossey had to overcome a lot of When Fossey sought out During one of Fossey’s trips to America, Despite her pioneering work, Fossey
obstacles in her studies of the palaeontologist Louis Leakey at she placed an up-and-coming research was rumoured to have a dark side.
Rwandan gorillas, not least of all the his dig site, he mistook her for a student, Alan Goodall, in charge of her It was reported she would capture
camp itself. Along with the issues tourist. While walking around the camp. During this time he shot two those she suspected of poaching, strip
that come from living in a remote site she tripped and broke her ankle poachers in their legs, and in revenge them and beat them with nettles. In
location, many of the students that along with a newly excavated fossil. the poachers killed six mountain gorillas. 2002, The Wall Street Journal dubbed
travelled to help with her studies Despite this, she continued to the This ongoing war with the poachers her “a racist alcoholic who regarded
soon left due to the extreme mountains of Congo, where she is regarded by some to have caused her gorillas as better than the African
coldness and darkness of the camp. glimpsed her first mountain gorilla. Fossey’s murder. people who lived around them.”
©Alamy
20