Dian Fossey
Encyclopedia
Dian Fossey was an American zoologist
who undertook an extensive study of gorilla
groups over a period of 18 years. She studied them daily in the mountain forests of Rwanda
, initially encouraged to work there by famous anthropologist Louis Leakey
. She was murdered in 1985; the case remains open.
Called one of the foremost primatologists in the world while she was alive, Fossey, along with Jane Goodall
and Birutė Galdikas
, was part of the so-called Leakey's Angels
, a group of three prominent researchers on primates (Fossey on gorillas; Goodall on chimpanzees; and Galdikas on orangutans) sent by archaeologist Louis Leakey
to study great apes in their natural environments.
, appeared on the cover of National Geographic Magazine
in January 1970, Fossey became an international celebrity, bringing massive publicity to her cause of saving the mountain gorilla from extinction, as well as convincing the general public that gorillas are not as fierce as they are sometimes depicted in movies and books. Photographs showing the gorilla "Peanuts" touching Fossey's hand depicted the first recorded peaceful contact between a human being and a wild gorilla. Her extraordinary rapport with animals and her background as an occupational therapist brushed away the Hollywood "King Kong" myth of an aggressive, savage beast.
Fossey made discoveries about gorillas including how females transfer from group to group over the decades, gorilla vocalization, hierarchies and social relationships among groups, rare infanticide, gorilla diet, and how gorillas recycle nutrients. Fossey's research was funded by the Wilkie Foundation and the Leakey Foundation, with primary funding from the National Geographic Society
.
Fossey lectured as professor at Cornell University in 1981-1983. Her bestselling book Gorillas in the Mist was praised by Nikolaas Tinbergen
, the Dutch ethologist and ornithologist who won the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
. Her book remains the best-selling book about gorillas.
Through the Digit Fund, Fossey financed patrols to destroy poachers' traps in the Karisoke study area. In four months in 1979, the Fossey patrol consisting of four African staffers destroyed 987 poachers' traps in the research area's vicinity. The official Rwandan national park guards, consisting of 24 staffers, did not eradicate any poachers' traps during the same period. In the eastern portion of the park not patrolled by Fossey, poachers virtually eradicated all the park's elephant
s for ivory and killed approximately more than a dozen gorillas.
Dr. Fossey helped in the arrest of several poachers, some of whom served or are serving long prison sentences.
In 1978, Fossey attempted to prevent the export of two young gorillas, Coco and Pucker, from Rwanda to the zoo
in Cologne, Germany. During the capture of the infants at the behest of the Cologne Zoo and Rwandan park conservator, 20 adult gorillas had been killed. The infant gorillas were given to Fossey by the park conservator of the Virunga Volcanoes for treatment of injuries suffered during their capture and captivity. With considerable effort, she restored them to some approximation of health. Over Fossey's objections, the gorillas were shipped to Cologne, where they lived nine years in captivity, both dying in the same month. She viewed the holding of animals in "prison" (zoo
s) for the entertainment of people as unethical.
While gorillas from fringe groups on the mountains that were not part of Fossey's study had often been found poached five to ten at a time, and had spurred Fossey to conduct her own anti-poaching patrols, Fossey's study groups had not been direct victims of poaching until Fossey's favored gorilla Digit was killed in 1978. Later that year, the silverback of Digit's Group 4, named for Fossey's Uncle Bert, was shot in the heart while trying to save his daughter, Kweli, from being seized by poachers cooperating with the Rwandan park conservator. Kweli's mother, Macho, was also killed in the raid, but Kweli was not captured due to Uncle Bert's intervention; however, three-year-old Kweli died slowly and painfully of gangrene
, from being brushed by a poacher's bullet.
According to Fossey's letters, ORTPN (the Rwandan national park system), the World Wildlife Fund, African Wildlife Foundation
, Fauna Preservation Society, the Mountain Gorilla Project and some of her former students tried to wrest control of the Karisoke research center from her for the purpose of tourism, by portraying her as unstable. In her last two years, Fossey claims not to have lost any gorillas to poachers; however, the Mountain Gorilla Project, which was supposed to patrol the Mount Sabyinyo
area, tried to cover up gorilla deaths caused by poaching and diseases transmitted through tourists. Nevertheless, these organizations received most of the public donations directed towards gorilla conservation. The public often believed their money would go to Fossey, who was struggling to finance her anti-poaching and bushmeat hunting patrols, while organizations collecting in her name put it into tourism projects and as she put it "to pay the airfare of so-called conservationists who will never go on anti-poaching patrols in their life." Fossey described the differing two philosophies as her own "active conservation" or the international conservation groups' "theoretical conservation."
farms. Thanks to her efforts, the park boundary was lowered from the 3,000-meter line to the 2,500-meter line.
1977, Fossey's favorite gorilla, Digit, was killed by poachers. As the sentry of study group 4, he defended the group against six poachers and their dogs, who ran across the gorilla study group while checking antelope
traplines. Digit took five spear wounds in ferocious self-defense and managed to kill one of the poachers' dogs, allowing the other 13 members of his group to escape. Digit was decapitated, and his hands cut off for an ashtray, for the price of $20. After his mutilated body was discovered by research assistant Ian Redmond
, Fossey's group captured one of the killers. He revealed the names of his five accomplices, three of whom were later imprisoned.
Fossey subsequently created the Digit Fund
(now the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International in the USA) to raise money for anti-poaching patrols. In addition, a consortium of international gorilla funds arose to accept donations in light of Digit's death and increased attention on poaching. Fossey mostly opposed the efforts of the international organizations, which she felt inefficiently directed their funds towards more equipment for Rwandan park officials, some of whom were alleged to have ordered some of the gorilla poachings in the first place.
The deaths of some of her most studied gorillas caused Fossey to devote more of her attention to preventing poaching and less on scientific publishing and research. Fossey became more intense in protecting the gorillas and began to employ more direct tactics: she and her staff cut animal traps almost as soon as they were set; frightened, captured and humiliated the poachers; held their cattle for ransom; burned their hunting camps and even mats from their houses. Fossey also constantly challenged the local officials to enforce the law and assist her.
to George E. Fossey III, an insurance agent, and Kathryn "Kitty" (Kidd) Fossey, a fashion model. Her father was a US Navy sailor. Her parents divorced when Dian was aged 6. Her mother remarried the following year, to businessman Richard Price. Her father tried to keep in contact, but her mother discouraged it and all contact was subsequently lost. At age six she began horseback riding
, earning a letter from her school; by her graduation in 1954, Fossey had established herself as an equestrian
.
, following the guidance of her stepfather she enrolled in a business course at the College of Marin
. However, a summer on a ranch in Montana
at age 19 rekindled her love of animals, and she enrolled in a pre-veterinary course in biology at the University of California, Davis
. She supported herself by working as a clerk at White Front
(a department store), doing other clerking and laboratory work, and working as a machinist
in a factory. Although Fossey had always been an exemplary student, she had difficulties with base sciences including chemistry
and physics
, and failed her second year of the program. She transferred to San Jose State College
to study occupational therapy
, receiving her bachelor's degree
in 1954. Initially following her college major, Fossey began a career in occupational therapy
. She interned at various hospitals in California and worked with tuberculosis
patients. After less than a year, she moved to Louisville, Kentucky
. Living a few miles south of the town on Judge George Long's estate off of Bardstown Road in the servants' quarters, she eventually became director of the occupational therapy department at Kosair Crippled Children's Hospital on Eastern Parkway, which was owned and operated by Kosair Charities Committee Inc. in Louisville.
In September 1963, she arrived in Nairobi
, Kenya
. Whilst there, she met actor William Holden
, owner of Treetops Hotel
, who introduced her to her safari guide, John Alexander. Alexander became her guide for the next seven weeks through Kenya, Tanzania
, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Zimbabwe
. Alexander's route included visits to Tsavo
, Africa’s largest national park, the saline lake of Manyara, famous for attracting giant flocks of flamingo
s, and the Ngorongoro Crater, well-known for its abundant wildlife. The final two sites for her visit were Olduvai Gorge
in Tanzania (the archeological site of Louis
and Mary Leakey
); and Mt. Mikeno in Congo, where in 1959, American zoologist George Schaller
had carried out a yearlong pioneering study of the mountain gorilla. At Olduvai Gorge, Fossey met Leakey and his wife while they were examining the area for hominid fossil
s. Leakey talked to Fossey about the work of Jane Goodall
and the importance of long-term research of the great apes. Although she had broken her ankle while visiting the Leakeys, by October 16, Fossey was staying in Walter Baumgartel's small hotel in Uganda
, the Travellers Rest. Baumgartel, an advocate of gorilla conservation, was among the first to see the benefits that tourism could bring to the area, and he introduced Fossey to Kenyan wildlife photographers Joan
and Alan Root
. The couple agreed to allow Fossey and Alexander to camp behind their own camp, and it was during these few days that Fossey first encountered wild mountain gorillas. After staying with friends in Rhodesia, Fossey returned home to Louisville to repay her loans. She published three articles in The Courier-Journal
newspaper, detailing her visit to Africa.
after a year of working together at Karisoke, with Campbell promising to leave his wife. Eventually the pair grew apart through her dedication to the gorillas and Karisoke, along with his need to work further afield and his marriage. In 1970, during her time in Cambridge to get her Ph.D., she discovered she was pregnant and got an abortion, later commenting that "you can't be a cover girl for National Geographic Magazine and be pregnant." Fossey had other relationships throughout the years and a love for children. Since Fossey would rescue any abused or abandoned animal she saw in Africa or near Karisoke, she acquired a menagerie in the camp, including a monkey who lived in her cabin, Kima, and a dog, Cindy. Fossey held Christmas parties every year for her researchers, staffers, and their families, and she developed a genuine friendship with Jane Goodall.
Fossey had been plagued by lung problems from an early age, and later in her life, Fossey suffered from advanced emphysema
brought on by years of heavy cigarette smoking. As the debilitating disease progressed— further aggravated by the high mountain altitude and damp climate— Fossey found it increasingly difficult to conduct field research, frequently suffering from shortness of breath and requiring the help of an oxygen tank when climbing or hiking long distances.
, Rwanda
on December 26, 1985. The last entry in her diary read:
Fossey's skull had been split by a panga (machete
), a tool widely used by poachers, which she had confiscated from a poacher years earlier and hung as a decoration on the wall of her living room adjacent to her bedroom. Fossey was found dead beside her bed, with her handgun beside her. She was in the act of loading her weapon, but picked the wrong type of ammunition during the struggle. The cabin showed signs of a struggle as there was broken glass on the floor and tables along with other furniture overturned. All Fossey's valuables were still in the cabin - thousands of dollars in cash, travelers' checks, and photo equipment remained untouched. She was 2 metres (7 ft) away from a hole cut in the wall of the cabin on the day of her murder.
Fossey is interred at Karisoke, in a site that she herself had constructed for her dead gorilla friends. She was buried in the gorilla graveyard next to Digit, and near many gorillas killed by poachers. Memorial services were also held in New York, Washington, and California.
Fossey's will stated that all her money (including proceeds from the film of Gorillas in the Mist) should go to the Digit Fund to finance anti-poaching patrols. However, her mother Kitty Price challenged the will and won.
On the night of Fossey's murder, a metal sheeting from her bedroom was removed at the only place of the bedroom where it would not have been obstructed by her furniture, which supports the case that the murder was committed by someone who was familiar with the cabin and her day-to-day activities. The sheeting of her cabin, which was normally securely locked at night, might also have been removed after the murder to make it appear as if the killing was the work of outsiders.
Farley Mowat
's biography of Fossey, Woman in the Mists
(New York, NY: Warner Books, 1987), suggests that it is unlikely that she was killed by poachers. According to Mowat, it is unlikely that a stranger could have entered her cabin by cutting a hole and then going to her living-room to get the panga, giving Fossey time to escape; the amount of untouched valuables also makes it unlikely to have been the act of a poor poacher. According to the book, poachers would have been more likely to kill her in the forest, with little risk to themselves. Mowat hence believes that she was killed by those who viewed her as an impediment to the touristic and financial exploitation of the gorillas. According to Linda Melvern in her book Conspiracy to Murder, Protais Zigiranyirazo
, Préfet of Ruhengeri
, animal trader and Rwanda's ex-president's brother-in-law, could also have been "implicated in the murder of Dian Fossey in 1985." Quoting Nick Gordon, author of a book about Fossey's death, "Another reason why she might have been murdered is that she knew too much about the illegal trafficking by Rwanda's ruling clique." Protais Zigiranyirazo also had strong financial interests in gorilla tourism.
Many of the organizations that opposed Fossey, including ORTPN (the Rwandan tourism office) and other wildlife organizations, used and continue to use her name for their financial gain up to this day. Weeks before her death, ORTPN refused to renew her visa, and pressure on Fossey was mounting. However, Fossey managed to obtain a special two-year visa through Augustin Nduwayezu, a benevolent Secretary-General in charge of immigration. Mowat believes that the extension of her visa amounted to a de facto death warrant.
Months before her death, Fossey signed a $1,000,000 contract with Universal Studios
for a movie that was to be based on her book, Gorillas in the Mist. The prospect that her work would be funded far into the future may have contributed to her demise.
The director of ORTPN, Habirameye, who refused to renew Fossey's last visa request, insisted at the filming of Gorillas in the Mist that there should be as little about the death scene as possible.
Six months before her murder, AP East Africa Correspondent Barry Shlachter quoted Fossey in one of her last interviews as saying that she was habituating gorillas only to whites because blacks were the poachers. They said Rwandans whom she suspected of poaching had been stripped and beaten with stinging nettles by Fossey, who removed their animist
amulets and held a villager's daughter captive for days. Dian's detractors used this episode against Dian even though the child was so happy to be with Dian, getting food and clothes that she didn't want to leave Karisoke. After her murder, Fossey's National Geographic editor, Mary Smith, told Shlachter that the famed gorilla expert on visits to the United States would "load up on firecrackers, cheap toys and magic tricks as part of her method to mystify the (Africans) -- hold them at bay."
Writing in The Wall Street Journal
in 2002, Tunku Varadarajan
described Fossey at the end of her life as colourful, controversial, and "a racist alcoholic who regarded her gorillas as better than the African people who lived around them."
However, Farley Mowat
's book, Woman in the Mists, dismisses these allegations as "sick fantasies" by her detractors. In his book, Mowat writes that during her South African lecture tour, Fossey was so critical of apartheid that she was banned from South Africa
. Mowat also asserts that the testimony of those closest to her and her doctors shows she was not an alcoholic. The source of the Wall Street Journal article was an interview by Dian's former student and apprentice Amy Vedder who, according to Dian, "makes her merde (feces) with the gorillas, lets them eat it and laughs about their reaction to it". Knowing how susceptible gorillas are to human diseases, Dian was furious and later forbid Vedder to ever set foot again on Karisoke soil.
had with chimpanzees in Tanzania.
After studying Swahili
and auditing a class on primatology during the eight months it took to get her visa and funding, Fossey arrived in Nairobi in December 1966. With the help of Joan Root and Leakey, Fossey acquired the necessary provisions and an old canvas-topped Land Rover
which she named “Lily.” On the way to the Congo, Fossey visited the Gombe Stream Research Centre to meet Goodall and observe her research methods with chimpanzees. Accompanied by photographer Alan Root, who helped her obtained work permits for the Virunga mountains
, Fossey began her field study at Kabara
, in the Congo in early 1967, in the same meadow where Schaller had made his camp seven years earlier. Root taught her basic gorilla tracking, and his tracker Sanwekwe later helped in Fossey's camp. Living in tents on mainly tinned produce, once a month Fossey would hike down the mountain to “Lily” and make the two-hour drive to the village of Kikumba to restock.
Fossey identified three distinct groups in her study area, but could not get close to them. She eventually found that mimicking their actions and making grunting sounds assured them, together with submissive behaviour and eating of the local celery plant. She later attributed her success with habituating gorillas to her experience working as an occupational therapist with autistic children. Like George Schaller, Fossey relied greatly on individual “noseprints” for identification, initially via sketching and later by camera.
Fossey had arrived in the Congo in locally turbulent times. Known as the Belgian Congo
until its independence in June 1960, unrest and rebellion plagued the new government until 1965, when Lieutenant General Joseph-Désiré Mobutu, by then commander-in-chief of the national army, seized control of the country and declared himself president for five years during what is now called the Congo Crisis
. During the political upheaval, a rebellion and battles took place in the Kivu
Province. On July 9, 1967, soldiers arrived at the camp to escort Fossey and her research workers down, and she was interned at Rumangabo
for two weeks. Fossey eventually escaped through bribery to Walter Baumgärtel's Travellers Rest Hotel in Kisoro
, where her escort was arrested by the Ugandan military.
Advised by the Ugandan authorities not to return to Congo, after meeting Leakey in Nairobi, Fossey agreed with him against US Embassy advice to restart her study on the Rwandan side of the Virungas. In Rwanda, Fossey had met local American expatriate Rosamond Carr
, who introduced her to Belgian
local Alyette DeMunck; DeMunck had a local's knowledge of Rwanda and offered to find Fossey a suitable site for study.
On September 24, 1967, Fossey founded the Karisoke
Research Center, a remote rainforest
camp nestled in Ruhengeri
province in the saddle of two volcanoes. For the research center's name, Fossey used “Kari” for the first four letters of Mt. Karisimbi that overlooked her camp from the south, and “soke” for the last four letters of Mt. Visoke, the slopes of which rose to the north, directly behind camp. Established 3000 metres (9,842.5 ft) up Mount Visoke, the defined study area covered 25 square kilometre. She became known by locals as Nyirmachabelli, roughly translated as "The woman who lives alone on the mountain."
Unlike the gorillas from the Congo side of the Virungas, the Karisoke area gorillas had never been partially habituated by Schaller's study; they knew humans only as poachers, and it took longer for Fossey to be able to study the Karisoke gorillas at a close distance.
Many research students left after not being able to handle the cold, dark, and extremely muddy conditions around Karisoke on the slopes of the Virunga Volcanoes, where paths usually have to be cut through six-foot-tall grass with a machete.
One of Fossey's friends, Shirley McGreal, continues to work for the protection of primates through the work of her International Primate Protection League
(IPPL) one of the few wildlife organizations that according to Fossey effectively promotes "active conservation".
Between Fossey's death until the 1994 Rwanda genocide, Karisoke was directed by former students some of whom had opposed her. During the genocide and subsequent period of insecurity, the camp was completely looted
and destroyed. Today only remnants remain of her cabin. During the civil war
the Virunga parks were filled with refugees and illegal logging destroyed vast areas.
Today, the Rwandan people have realized the importance of the mountain gorillas and their natural habitat. They have adapted the traditional household baby naming ceremony Kwita Izina
- into the Baby Gorilla Naming Ceremony in which each baby gorilla is given a name by invited guests and celebrities at an annual, internationally famous event under the patronage of the President.
A new book published in 2005 by National Geographic in the United States
and Palazzo Editions
in the United Kingdom
as No One Loved Gorillas More, written by Camilla de la Bedoyere, features for the first time Fossey's story told through the letters she wrote. Dreams: The Legacy of Dian Fossey was published, written by the investigative journalist Georgianne Nienaber.
More recently, the Kentucky Opera
Visions Program, in Louisville
, has written an opera
about Fossey. The opera
, entitled Nyiramachabelli, premiered on May 23, 2006.
Harold Hayes
' book The Dark Romance of Dian Fossey was published in 1989 and compares the story of Fossey with versions as seen by others. Rosamond Carr
, former head of the orphanage in Gisenyi who saved the lives of more than a thousand children and who knew Fossey, states in her biography (Land of a Thousand Hills) that the Dark Romance book was based on plain lies, just as the article which preceded it and proved to be particularly damaging.
She is also prominently featured in a book by the Vanity Fair
journalist Alex Shoumatoff
called African Madness. Rosamond Carr was equally dismissive of that book's presentation of allegations.
bought the film rights to Gorillas in the Mist from Fossey in 1985, and Warner Bros. Studios bought the rights to the Hayes article, despite its having been severely criticized by Rosamond Carr
. As a result of a legal battle between the two studios, a co-production was arranged.
Portions of Gorillas in the Mist and the Hayes article were adapted for Gorillas in the Mist: The Story of Dian Fossey
(1988), starring Sigourney Weaver
. The book had covered Fossey's scientific career in great detail and omitted material on her personal life, such as her affair with photographer Bob Campbell
. In the film, however, the affair with Campbell (played by Bryan Brown
) formed a major subplot.
The Hayes article preceding the movie had portrayed Fossey as a woman completely obsessed with the gorillas, who would stop at nothing to protect them. And indeed the film included a fictitious scene in which Fossey orchestrated the mock hanging of a poacher, and another where she burned poachers' huts. It also introduced fictional characters, such as the animal trader Van Vecten, and changed the names of Fossey's students.
After making Gorillas in the Mist, Weaver became a supporter of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, and is now its Honorary Chair. In 2006, she traveled back to the Virungas to film Gorillas Revisited with the BBC.
In the 2011 BBC documentary All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace
, Adam Curtis
used Fossey as a symbol of the ideology of ecology
, balance of nature and western post-colonial political exploits in Africa.
Ethology
Ethology is the scientific study of animal behavior, and a sub-topic of zoology....
who undertook an extensive study of gorilla
Gorilla
Gorillas are the largest extant species of primates. They are ground-dwelling, predominantly herbivorous apes that inhabit the forests of central Africa. Gorillas are divided into two species and either four or five subspecies...
groups over a period of 18 years. She studied them daily in the mountain forests of Rwanda
Rwanda
Rwanda or , officially the Republic of Rwanda , is a country in central and eastern Africa with a population of approximately 11.4 million . Rwanda is located a few degrees south of the Equator, and is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo...
, initially encouraged to work there by famous anthropologist Louis Leakey
Louis Leakey
Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey was a British archaeologist and naturalist whose work was important in establishing human evolutionary development in Africa. He also played a major role in creating organizations for future research in Africa and for protecting wildlife there...
. She was murdered in 1985; the case remains open.
Called one of the foremost primatologists in the world while she was alive, Fossey, along with Jane Goodall
Jane Goodall
Dame Jane Morris Goodall, DBE , is a British primatologist, ethologist, anthropologist, and UN Messenger of Peace. Considered to be the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees, Goodall is best known for her 45-year study of social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National...
and Birutė Galdikas
Birute Galdikas
Birutė Marija Filomena Galdikas, OC , is a primatologist, conservationist, ethologist, and author of several books relating to the endangered orangutan, particularly the Bornean orangutan. Well known in the field of modern primatology, Galdikas is recognized as a leading authority on orangutans...
, was part of the so-called Leakey's Angels
Leakey's Angels
Leakey's Angels is a relatively recent name given to three women sent by archaeologist Louis Leakey to study primates in their natural environments. The three are Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Birutė Galdikas...
, a group of three prominent researchers on primates (Fossey on gorillas; Goodall on chimpanzees; and Galdikas on orangutans) sent by archaeologist Louis Leakey
Louis Leakey
Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey was a British archaeologist and naturalist whose work was important in establishing human evolutionary development in Africa. He also played a major role in creating organizations for future research in Africa and for protecting wildlife there...
to study great apes in their natural environments.
Scientific achievements
When her photograph, taken by Bob CampbellRobert M Campbell
Robert M "Bob" Campbell, wildlife photographer and filmmaker known for his footage and photographs of Dian Fossey and mountain gorillas published in the January 1970 issue of National Geographic....
, appeared on the cover of National Geographic Magazine
National Geographic Magazine
National Geographic, formerly the National Geographic Magazine, is the official journal of the National Geographic Society. It published its first issue in 1888, just nine months after the Society itself was founded...
in January 1970, Fossey became an international celebrity, bringing massive publicity to her cause of saving the mountain gorilla from extinction, as well as convincing the general public that gorillas are not as fierce as they are sometimes depicted in movies and books. Photographs showing the gorilla "Peanuts" touching Fossey's hand depicted the first recorded peaceful contact between a human being and a wild gorilla. Her extraordinary rapport with animals and her background as an occupational therapist brushed away the Hollywood "King Kong" myth of an aggressive, savage beast.
Fossey made discoveries about gorillas including how females transfer from group to group over the decades, gorilla vocalization, hierarchies and social relationships among groups, rare infanticide, gorilla diet, and how gorillas recycle nutrients. Fossey's research was funded by the Wilkie Foundation and the Leakey Foundation, with primary funding from the National Geographic Society
National Geographic Society
The National Geographic Society , headquartered in Washington, D.C. in the United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational institutions in the world. Its interests include geography, archaeology and natural science, the promotion of environmental and historical...
.
Cornell University and autobiography
By 1980, Fossey who had obtained her PhD at Cambridge University in the UK was recognized as the world's leading authority on the physiology and behaviour of mountain gorillas, defining gorillas as being "dignified, highly social, gentle giants, with individual personalities, and strong family relationships."Fossey lectured as professor at Cornell University in 1981-1983. Her bestselling book Gorillas in the Mist was praised by Nikolaas Tinbergen
Nikolaas Tinbergen
Nikolaas "Niko" Tinbergen was a Dutch ethologist and ornithologist who shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Karl von Frisch and Konrad Lorenz for their discoveries concerning organization and elicitation of individual and social behaviour patterns in animals.In the 1960s he...
, the Dutch ethologist and ornithologist who won the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine administered by the Nobel Foundation, is awarded once a year for outstanding discoveries in the field of life science and medicine. It is one of five Nobel Prizes established in 1895 by Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, in his will...
. Her book remains the best-selling book about gorillas.
Opposition to poaching
While poaching had been illegal in the national park of the Virunga Volcanoes in Rwanda since the 1920s, the law was rarely enforced by park conservators, who were often bribed by poachers and paid a salary less than Fossey's own African staff. On three occasions, Fossey wrote that she witnessed the aftermath of the capture of infant gorillas at the behest of the park conservators for zoos; since gorillas will fight to the death to protect their young, the kidnappings would often result in up to 10 adult gorillas' deaths.Through the Digit Fund, Fossey financed patrols to destroy poachers' traps in the Karisoke study area. In four months in 1979, the Fossey patrol consisting of four African staffers destroyed 987 poachers' traps in the research area's vicinity. The official Rwandan national park guards, consisting of 24 staffers, did not eradicate any poachers' traps during the same period. In the eastern portion of the park not patrolled by Fossey, poachers virtually eradicated all the park's elephant
Elephant
Elephants are large land mammals in two extant genera of the family Elephantidae: Elephas and Loxodonta, with the third genus Mammuthus extinct...
s for ivory and killed approximately more than a dozen gorillas.
Dr. Fossey helped in the arrest of several poachers, some of whom served or are serving long prison sentences.
In 1978, Fossey attempted to prevent the export of two young gorillas, Coco and Pucker, from Rwanda to the zoo
Cologne Zoological Garden
The Aktiengesellschaft Cologne Zoological Garden is the zoo of Cologne, Germany. It features over 7,000 animals of more than 700 species on more than 20 hectares...
in Cologne, Germany. During the capture of the infants at the behest of the Cologne Zoo and Rwandan park conservator, 20 adult gorillas had been killed. The infant gorillas were given to Fossey by the park conservator of the Virunga Volcanoes for treatment of injuries suffered during their capture and captivity. With considerable effort, she restored them to some approximation of health. Over Fossey's objections, the gorillas were shipped to Cologne, where they lived nine years in captivity, both dying in the same month. She viewed the holding of animals in "prison" (zoo
Zoo
A zoological garden, zoological park, menagerie, or zoo is a facility in which animals are confined within enclosures, displayed to the public, and in which they may also be bred....
s) for the entertainment of people as unethical.
While gorillas from fringe groups on the mountains that were not part of Fossey's study had often been found poached five to ten at a time, and had spurred Fossey to conduct her own anti-poaching patrols, Fossey's study groups had not been direct victims of poaching until Fossey's favored gorilla Digit was killed in 1978. Later that year, the silverback of Digit's Group 4, named for Fossey's Uncle Bert, was shot in the heart while trying to save his daughter, Kweli, from being seized by poachers cooperating with the Rwandan park conservator. Kweli's mother, Macho, was also killed in the raid, but Kweli was not captured due to Uncle Bert's intervention; however, three-year-old Kweli died slowly and painfully of gangrene
Gangrene
Gangrene is a serious and potentially life-threatening condition that arises when a considerable mass of body tissue dies . This may occur after an injury or infection, or in people suffering from any chronic health problem affecting blood circulation. The primary cause of gangrene is reduced blood...
, from being brushed by a poacher's bullet.
According to Fossey's letters, ORTPN (the Rwandan national park system), the World Wildlife Fund, African Wildlife Foundation
African Wildlife Foundation
The African Wildlife Foundation , founded in 1961 as the African Wildlife Leadership Foundation, is an international conservation organization that focuses on critically important landscapes in Africa....
, Fauna Preservation Society, the Mountain Gorilla Project and some of her former students tried to wrest control of the Karisoke research center from her for the purpose of tourism, by portraying her as unstable. In her last two years, Fossey claims not to have lost any gorillas to poachers; however, the Mountain Gorilla Project, which was supposed to patrol the Mount Sabyinyo
Mount Sabyinyo
Mount Sabyinyo is an extinct volcano in eastern Africa, in the Virunga Mountains. The summit of the mountain, at , marks the intersection of the borders of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda...
area, tried to cover up gorilla deaths caused by poaching and diseases transmitted through tourists. Nevertheless, these organizations received most of the public donations directed towards gorilla conservation. The public often believed their money would go to Fossey, who was struggling to finance her anti-poaching and bushmeat hunting patrols, while organizations collecting in her name put it into tourism projects and as she put it "to pay the airfare of so-called conservationists who will never go on anti-poaching patrols in their life." Fossey described the differing two philosophies as her own "active conservation" or the international conservation groups' "theoretical conservation."
Opposition to tourism
Dian Fossey strongly opposed tourism, as gorillas are very susceptible to diseases by humans like the flu for which they have no immunity. Dian Fossey reported several cases in which gorillas died because of diseases spread by tourists. She also viewed tourism as an interference into their natural wild behavior. Fossey also criticized tourist programs, often paid for by international conservation organizations, for interfering with both her research and the peace of the mountain gorillas' habitat.Preservation of habitat
Fossey is responsible for the revision of a European Community project that converted parkland into pyrethrumPyrethrum
Pyrethrum refers to several Old World plants of the genus Chrysanthemum which are cultivated as ornamentals for their showy flower heads. Pyrethrum is also the name of a natural insecticide made from the dried flower heads of C. cinerariifolium and C...
farms. Thanks to her efforts, the park boundary was lowered from the 3,000-meter line to the 2,500-meter line.
Digit Fund
Sometime during the day on New Year's EveNew Year's Eve
New Year's Eve is observed annually on December 31, the final day of any given year in the Gregorian calendar. In modern societies, New Year's Eve is often celebrated at social gatherings, during which participants dance, eat, consume alcoholic beverages, and watch or light fireworks to mark the...
1977, Fossey's favorite gorilla, Digit, was killed by poachers. As the sentry of study group 4, he defended the group against six poachers and their dogs, who ran across the gorilla study group while checking antelope
Antelope
Antelope is a term referring to many even-toed ungulate species indigenous to various regions in Africa and Eurasia. Antelopes comprise a miscellaneous group within the family Bovidae, encompassing those old-world species that are neither cattle, sheep, buffalo, bison, nor goats...
traplines. Digit took five spear wounds in ferocious self-defense and managed to kill one of the poachers' dogs, allowing the other 13 members of his group to escape. Digit was decapitated, and his hands cut off for an ashtray, for the price of $20. After his mutilated body was discovered by research assistant Ian Redmond
Ian Redmond
Ian Redmond OBE is a tropical field biologist and conservationist. His career spans more than 30 years in which he is renowned for his work with gorillas and elephants. He is best known for his work with mountain gorrilas, Redmond has been involved in more than 50 documentaries on the subject for,...
, Fossey's group captured one of the killers. He revealed the names of his five accomplices, three of whom were later imprisoned.
Fossey subsequently created the Digit Fund
Digit Fund
The Digit Fund was created by Dr. Dian Fossey in 1978 for the sole purpose of financing her anti-poaching patrols and preventing further poaching of the endangered mountain gorillas Fossey studied at her Karisoke Research Center in the Virunga Volcanoes of Rwanda...
(now the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International in the USA) to raise money for anti-poaching patrols. In addition, a consortium of international gorilla funds arose to accept donations in light of Digit's death and increased attention on poaching. Fossey mostly opposed the efforts of the international organizations, which she felt inefficiently directed their funds towards more equipment for Rwandan park officials, some of whom were alleged to have ordered some of the gorilla poachings in the first place.
The deaths of some of her most studied gorillas caused Fossey to devote more of her attention to preventing poaching and less on scientific publishing and research. Fossey became more intense in protecting the gorillas and began to employ more direct tactics: she and her staff cut animal traps almost as soon as they were set; frightened, captured and humiliated the poachers; held their cattle for ransom; burned their hunting camps and even mats from their houses. Fossey also constantly challenged the local officials to enforce the law and assist her.
Biography
Dian Fossey was born in San Francisco, CaliforniaCalifornia
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
to George E. Fossey III, an insurance agent, and Kathryn "Kitty" (Kidd) Fossey, a fashion model. Her father was a US Navy sailor. Her parents divorced when Dian was aged 6. Her mother remarried the following year, to businessman Richard Price. Her father tried to keep in contact, but her mother discouraged it and all contact was subsequently lost. At age six she began horseback riding
Equestrianism
Equestrianism more often known as riding, horseback riding or horse riding refers to the skill of riding, driving, or vaulting with horses...
, earning a letter from her school; by her graduation in 1954, Fossey had established herself as an equestrian
Equestrianism
Equestrianism more often known as riding, horseback riding or horse riding refers to the skill of riding, driving, or vaulting with horses...
.
Education
Educated at Lowell High SchoolLowell High School (San Francisco)
Lowell High School is a public magnet school in San Francisco, California. The school opened in 1856 as the Union Grammar School and attained its current name in 1896. Lowell moved to its current location in the Merced Manor neighborhood in 1962....
, following the guidance of her stepfather she enrolled in a business course at the College of Marin
College of Marin
The College of Marin is a community college in Marin County, California, U.S., with two campuses, one in Kentfield, and the second in Novato. It is the only institution operated by the Marin Community College District. Its chief executive officer is currently Superintendent/President David Wain...
. However, a summer on a ranch in Montana
Montana
Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...
at age 19 rekindled her love of animals, and she enrolled in a pre-veterinary course in biology at the University of California, Davis
University of California, Davis
The University of California, Davis is a public teaching and research university established in 1905 and located in Davis, California, USA. Spanning over , the campus is the largest within the University of California system and third largest by enrollment...
. She supported herself by working as a clerk at White Front
White Front
White Front was a chain of discount stores in Southern California and the western United States from 1959 through the mid-1970s. They were noted for the architecture of their store fronts which was an enormous, sweeping archway with the store name spelled out in individual letters fanned across the...
(a department store), doing other clerking and laboratory work, and working as a machinist
Machinist
A machinist is a person who uses machine tools to make or modify parts, primarily metal parts, a process known as machining. This is accomplished by using machine tools to cut away excess material much as a woodcarver cuts away excess wood to produce his work. In addition to metal, the parts may...
in a factory. Although Fossey had always been an exemplary student, she had difficulties with base sciences including chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
and physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
, and failed her second year of the program. She transferred to San Jose State College
San José State University
San Jose State University is a public university located in San Jose, California, United States...
to study occupational therapy
Occupational therapy
Occupational therapy is a discipline that aims to promote health by enabling people to perform meaningful and purposeful activities. Occupational therapists work with individuals who suffer from a mentally, physically, developmentally, and/or emotionally disabling condition by utilizing treatments...
, receiving her bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
in 1954. Initially following her college major, Fossey began a career in occupational therapy
Occupational therapy
Occupational therapy is a discipline that aims to promote health by enabling people to perform meaningful and purposeful activities. Occupational therapists work with individuals who suffer from a mentally, physically, developmentally, and/or emotionally disabling condition by utilizing treatments...
. She interned at various hospitals in California and worked with tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
patients. After less than a year, she moved to Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...
. Living a few miles south of the town on Judge George Long's estate off of Bardstown Road in the servants' quarters, she eventually became director of the occupational therapy department at Kosair Crippled Children's Hospital on Eastern Parkway, which was owned and operated by Kosair Charities Committee Inc. in Louisville.
Interest in Africa
Fossey became friends with Mary White "Gaynee" Henry, secretary to the chief administrator at the hospital and wife of one of the doctors, Michael J. Henry. Fossey turned down an offer to join the couple on an African tour due to lack of finances, but in 1963 she borrowed $8,000 (one year's salary), and went on a seven-week visit to Africa.In September 1963, she arrived in Nairobi
Nairobi
Nairobi is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The city and its surrounding area also forms the Nairobi County. The name "Nairobi" comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nyirobi, which translates to "the place of cool waters". However, it is popularly known as the "Green City in the Sun" and is...
, Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
. Whilst there, she met actor William Holden
William Holden
William Holden was an American actor. Holden won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1954 and the Emmy Award for Best Actor in 1974...
, owner of Treetops Hotel
Treetops Hotel
Treetops Hotel is a hotel in Aberdare National Park in Kenya near the township of Nyeri, 1,966 m above sea level on the Aberdare Range and in sight of Mount Kenya...
, who introduced her to her safari guide, John Alexander. Alexander became her guide for the next seven weeks through Kenya, Tanzania
Tanzania
The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...
, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
. Alexander's route included visits to Tsavo
Tsavo
Tsavo is a region of Kenya located at the crossing of the Uganda Railway over the Tsavo River, close to where it meets the Athi River. It is a KiKamba word meaning "a place of slaughter", a reference to the murderous attacks of Maasai morani on Kamba people there...
, Africa’s largest national park, the saline lake of Manyara, famous for attracting giant flocks of flamingo
Flamingo
Flamingos or flamingoes are gregarious wading birds in the genus Phoenicopterus , the only genus in the family Phoenicopteridae...
s, and the Ngorongoro Crater, well-known for its abundant wildlife. The final two sites for her visit were Olduvai Gorge
Olduvai Gorge
The Olduvai Gorge is a steep-sided ravine in the Great Rift Valley that stretches through eastern Africa. It is in the eastern Serengeti Plains in northern Tanzania and is about long. It is located 45 km from the Laetoli archaeological site...
in Tanzania (the archeological site of Louis
Louis Leakey
Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey was a British archaeologist and naturalist whose work was important in establishing human evolutionary development in Africa. He also played a major role in creating organizations for future research in Africa and for protecting wildlife there...
and Mary Leakey
Mary Leakey
Mary Leakey was a British archaeologist and anthropologist, who discovered the first skull of a fossil ape on Rusinga Island and also a noted robust Australopithecine called Zinjanthropus at Olduvai. For much of her career she worked together with her husband, Louis Leakey, in Olduvai Gorge,...
); and Mt. Mikeno in Congo, where in 1959, American zoologist George Schaller
George Schaller
George Beals Schaller is an American mammalogist, naturalist, conservationist and author. Schaller is recognized by many as the world's preeminent field biologist, studying wildlife throughout Africa, Asia and South America. Born in Berlin, Schaller grew up in Germany, but moved to Missouri as a...
had carried out a yearlong pioneering study of the mountain gorilla. At Olduvai Gorge, Fossey met Leakey and his wife while they were examining the area for hominid fossil
Fossil
Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...
s. Leakey talked to Fossey about the work of Jane Goodall
Jane Goodall
Dame Jane Morris Goodall, DBE , is a British primatologist, ethologist, anthropologist, and UN Messenger of Peace. Considered to be the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees, Goodall is best known for her 45-year study of social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National...
and the importance of long-term research of the great apes. Although she had broken her ankle while visiting the Leakeys, by October 16, Fossey was staying in Walter Baumgartel's small hotel in Uganda
Uganda
Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...
, the Travellers Rest. Baumgartel, an advocate of gorilla conservation, was among the first to see the benefits that tourism could bring to the area, and he introduced Fossey to Kenyan wildlife photographers Joan
Joan Root
Joan Root was a Kenyan-born conservationist, ecological activist and Oscar-nominated filmmaker....
and Alan Root
Alan Root
Alan Root is an Oscar-nominated filmmaker who worked on nature documentary series' such as Survival.He was married to fellow filmmaker Joan Root, who was a Kenyan-born conservationist and ecological activist...
. The couple agreed to allow Fossey and Alexander to camp behind their own camp, and it was during these few days that Fossey first encountered wild mountain gorillas. After staying with friends in Rhodesia, Fossey returned home to Louisville to repay her loans. She published three articles in The Courier-Journal
The Courier-Journal
The Courier-Journal, locally called "The C-J", is the main newspaper for the city of Louisville, Kentucky, USA. According to the 1999 Editor & Publisher International Yearbook, the paper is the 48th largest daily paper in the United States and the single largest in Kentucky.- Origins :The...
newspaper, detailing her visit to Africa.
Personal life
During her African safari, Fossey met Alexie Forrester, the brother of an African she had been dating in Louisville; Fossey and Forrester later became engaged. In her later years Fossey became involved with National Geographic photographer Bob CampbellRobert M Campbell
Robert M "Bob" Campbell, wildlife photographer and filmmaker known for his footage and photographs of Dian Fossey and mountain gorillas published in the January 1970 issue of National Geographic....
after a year of working together at Karisoke, with Campbell promising to leave his wife. Eventually the pair grew apart through her dedication to the gorillas and Karisoke, along with his need to work further afield and his marriage. In 1970, during her time in Cambridge to get her Ph.D., she discovered she was pregnant and got an abortion, later commenting that "you can't be a cover girl for National Geographic Magazine and be pregnant." Fossey had other relationships throughout the years and a love for children. Since Fossey would rescue any abused or abandoned animal she saw in Africa or near Karisoke, she acquired a menagerie in the camp, including a monkey who lived in her cabin, Kima, and a dog, Cindy. Fossey held Christmas parties every year for her researchers, staffers, and their families, and she developed a genuine friendship with Jane Goodall.
Fossey had been plagued by lung problems from an early age, and later in her life, Fossey suffered from advanced emphysema
Emphysema
Emphysema is a long-term, progressive disease of the lungs that primarily causes shortness of breath. In people with emphysema, the tissues necessary to support the physical shape and function of the lungs are destroyed. It is included in a group of diseases called chronic obstructive pulmonary...
brought on by years of heavy cigarette smoking. As the debilitating disease progressed— further aggravated by the high mountain altitude and damp climate— Fossey found it increasingly difficult to conduct field research, frequently suffering from shortness of breath and requiring the help of an oxygen tank when climbing or hiking long distances.
Death
Fossey was found murdered in the bedroom of her cabin in Virunga MountainsVirunga Mountains
The Virunga Mountains are a chain of volcanoes in East Africa, along the northern border of Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda. The mountain range is a branch of the Albertine Rift, a part of the Great Rift Valley. They are located between Lake Edward and Lake Kivu...
, Rwanda
Rwanda
Rwanda or , officially the Republic of Rwanda , is a country in central and eastern Africa with a population of approximately 11.4 million . Rwanda is located a few degrees south of the Equator, and is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo...
on December 26, 1985. The last entry in her diary read:
Fossey's skull had been split by a panga (machete
Machete
The machete is a large cleaver-like cutting tool. The blade is typically long and usually under thick. In the English language, an equivalent term is matchet, though it is less commonly known...
), a tool widely used by poachers, which she had confiscated from a poacher years earlier and hung as a decoration on the wall of her living room adjacent to her bedroom. Fossey was found dead beside her bed, with her handgun beside her. She was in the act of loading her weapon, but picked the wrong type of ammunition during the struggle. The cabin showed signs of a struggle as there was broken glass on the floor and tables along with other furniture overturned. All Fossey's valuables were still in the cabin - thousands of dollars in cash, travelers' checks, and photo equipment remained untouched. She was 2 metres (7 ft) away from a hole cut in the wall of the cabin on the day of her murder.
Fossey is interred at Karisoke, in a site that she herself had constructed for her dead gorilla friends. She was buried in the gorilla graveyard next to Digit, and near many gorillas killed by poachers. Memorial services were also held in New York, Washington, and California.
Fossey's will stated that all her money (including proceeds from the film of Gorillas in the Mist) should go to the Digit Fund to finance anti-poaching patrols. However, her mother Kitty Price challenged the will and won.
Opponents and theories on murder
After Fossey's death, her entire staff, including Rwelekana, a tracker she had fired months before, were arrested. All but Rwelekana, who was later found dead in prison, supposedly having hanged himself, were released.On the night of Fossey's murder, a metal sheeting from her bedroom was removed at the only place of the bedroom where it would not have been obstructed by her furniture, which supports the case that the murder was committed by someone who was familiar with the cabin and her day-to-day activities. The sheeting of her cabin, which was normally securely locked at night, might also have been removed after the murder to make it appear as if the killing was the work of outsiders.
Farley Mowat
Farley Mowat
Farley McGill Mowat, , born May 12, 1921 is a conservationist and one of Canada's most widely-read authors.His works have been translated into 52 languages and he has sold more than 14 million books. He achieved fame with the publication of his books on the Canadian North, such as People of the...
's biography of Fossey, Woman in the Mists
Woman in the Mists
Woman in the Mists: The Story of Dian Fossey and the Mountain Gorillas of Africa is a 1987 biography of the conservationist Dian Fossey, who studied and lived among the mountain gorillas of Rwanda....
(New York, NY: Warner Books, 1987), suggests that it is unlikely that she was killed by poachers. According to Mowat, it is unlikely that a stranger could have entered her cabin by cutting a hole and then going to her living-room to get the panga, giving Fossey time to escape; the amount of untouched valuables also makes it unlikely to have been the act of a poor poacher. According to the book, poachers would have been more likely to kill her in the forest, with little risk to themselves. Mowat hence believes that she was killed by those who viewed her as an impediment to the touristic and financial exploitation of the gorillas. According to Linda Melvern in her book Conspiracy to Murder, Protais Zigiranyirazo
Protais Zigiranyirazo
Protais Zigiranyirazo commonly known as Monsieur Zed , is a Rwandan businessman and politician. He is the former governor of Ruhengeri prefecture in northwestern Rwanda. He has also been accused of collaborating in the 1994 Rwandan genocide and the 1985 murder of Dian Fossey.Between 1974 and...
, Préfet of Ruhengeri
Ruhengeri
Ruhengeri is a city and capital of Musanze District in the Northern Province of Rwanda. Some sources now refer to the city itself as Musanze, after the district in which it lies. It lies near the twin lakes of Lake Burera and Lake Ruhondo and is the gateway city to Volcanoes National Park and the...
, animal trader and Rwanda's ex-president's brother-in-law, could also have been "implicated in the murder of Dian Fossey in 1985." Quoting Nick Gordon, author of a book about Fossey's death, "Another reason why she might have been murdered is that she knew too much about the illegal trafficking by Rwanda's ruling clique." Protais Zigiranyirazo also had strong financial interests in gorilla tourism.
Many of the organizations that opposed Fossey, including ORTPN (the Rwandan tourism office) and other wildlife organizations, used and continue to use her name for their financial gain up to this day. Weeks before her death, ORTPN refused to renew her visa, and pressure on Fossey was mounting. However, Fossey managed to obtain a special two-year visa through Augustin Nduwayezu, a benevolent Secretary-General in charge of immigration. Mowat believes that the extension of her visa amounted to a de facto death warrant.
Months before her death, Fossey signed a $1,000,000 contract with Universal Studios
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
for a movie that was to be based on her book, Gorillas in the Mist. The prospect that her work would be funded far into the future may have contributed to her demise.
The director of ORTPN, Habirameye, who refused to renew Fossey's last visa request, insisted at the filming of Gorillas in the Mist that there should be as little about the death scene as possible.
Six months before her murder, AP East Africa Correspondent Barry Shlachter quoted Fossey in one of her last interviews as saying that she was habituating gorillas only to whites because blacks were the poachers. They said Rwandans whom she suspected of poaching had been stripped and beaten with stinging nettles by Fossey, who removed their animist
Animism
Animism refers to the belief that non-human entities are spiritual beings, or at least embody some kind of life-principle....
amulets and held a villager's daughter captive for days. Dian's detractors used this episode against Dian even though the child was so happy to be with Dian, getting food and clothes that she didn't want to leave Karisoke. After her murder, Fossey's National Geographic editor, Mary Smith, told Shlachter that the famed gorilla expert on visits to the United States would "load up on firecrackers, cheap toys and magic tricks as part of her method to mystify the (Africans) -- hold them at bay."
Writing in The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
in 2002, Tunku Varadarajan
Tunku Varadarajan
Tunku Varadarajan is a New York-based journalist who is editor of Newsweek International. Earlier, he was writer-at-large for The Daily Beast. He has also worked as executive editor for opinion at Forbes, assistant managing editor at the Wall Street Journal and as bureau chief of The Times of...
described Fossey at the end of her life as colourful, controversial, and "a racist alcoholic who regarded her gorillas as better than the African people who lived around them."
However, Farley Mowat
Farley Mowat
Farley McGill Mowat, , born May 12, 1921 is a conservationist and one of Canada's most widely-read authors.His works have been translated into 52 languages and he has sold more than 14 million books. He achieved fame with the publication of his books on the Canadian North, such as People of the...
's book, Woman in the Mists, dismisses these allegations as "sick fantasies" by her detractors. In his book, Mowat writes that during her South African lecture tour, Fossey was so critical of apartheid that she was banned from South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
. Mowat also asserts that the testimony of those closest to her and her doctors shows she was not an alcoholic. The source of the Wall Street Journal article was an interview by Dian's former student and apprentice Amy Vedder who, according to Dian, "makes her merde (feces) with the gorillas, lets them eat it and laughs about their reaction to it". Knowing how susceptible gorillas are to human diseases, Dian was furious and later forbid Vedder to ever set foot again on Karisoke soil.
Research at Karisoke
When Leakey made an appearance in Louisville while on a nationwide lecture tour, Fossey took the color supplements that had appeared about her African trip in The Courier-Journal to show to Leakey, who remembered her and her interest in mountain gorillas. Three years after the original safari, Leakey suggested that Fossey could undertake a long-term study of the gorillas in the same manner as Jane GoodallJane Goodall
Dame Jane Morris Goodall, DBE , is a British primatologist, ethologist, anthropologist, and UN Messenger of Peace. Considered to be the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees, Goodall is best known for her 45-year study of social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National...
had with chimpanzees in Tanzania.
After studying Swahili
Swahili language
Swahili or Kiswahili is a Bantu language spoken by various ethnic groups that inhabit several large stretches of the Mozambique Channel coastline from northern Kenya to northern Mozambique, including the Comoro Islands. It is also spoken by ethnic minority groups in Somalia...
and auditing a class on primatology during the eight months it took to get her visa and funding, Fossey arrived in Nairobi in December 1966. With the help of Joan Root and Leakey, Fossey acquired the necessary provisions and an old canvas-topped Land Rover
Land Rover
Land Rover is a British car manufacturer with its headquarters in Gaydon, Warwickshire, United Kingdom which specialises in four-wheel-drive vehicles. It is owned by the Indian company Tata Motors, forming part of their Jaguar Land Rover group...
which she named “Lily.” On the way to the Congo, Fossey visited the Gombe Stream Research Centre to meet Goodall and observe her research methods with chimpanzees. Accompanied by photographer Alan Root, who helped her obtained work permits for the Virunga mountains
Virunga Mountains
The Virunga Mountains are a chain of volcanoes in East Africa, along the northern border of Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda. The mountain range is a branch of the Albertine Rift, a part of the Great Rift Valley. They are located between Lake Edward and Lake Kivu...
, Fossey began her field study at Kabara
Kabara
Kabara is an island of Fiji, a member of the Lau archipelago. With a land area of 31 km² , its population of some 700 lives in four villages.The islanders are noted for their craftsmanship in the area of wood carving...
, in the Congo in early 1967, in the same meadow where Schaller had made his camp seven years earlier. Root taught her basic gorilla tracking, and his tracker Sanwekwe later helped in Fossey's camp. Living in tents on mainly tinned produce, once a month Fossey would hike down the mountain to “Lily” and make the two-hour drive to the village of Kikumba to restock.
Fossey identified three distinct groups in her study area, but could not get close to them. She eventually found that mimicking their actions and making grunting sounds assured them, together with submissive behaviour and eating of the local celery plant. She later attributed her success with habituating gorillas to her experience working as an occupational therapist with autistic children. Like George Schaller, Fossey relied greatly on individual “noseprints” for identification, initially via sketching and later by camera.
Fossey had arrived in the Congo in locally turbulent times. Known as the Belgian Congo
Belgian Congo
The Belgian Congo was the formal title of present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo between King Leopold II's formal relinquishment of his personal control over the state to Belgium on 15 November 1908, and Congolese independence on 30 June 1960.-Congo Free State, 1884–1908:Until the latter...
until its independence in June 1960, unrest and rebellion plagued the new government until 1965, when Lieutenant General Joseph-Désiré Mobutu, by then commander-in-chief of the national army, seized control of the country and declared himself president for five years during what is now called the Congo Crisis
Congo Crisis
The Congo Crisis was a period of turmoil in the First Republic of the Congo that began with national independence from Belgium and ended with the seizing of power by Joseph Mobutu...
. During the political upheaval, a rebellion and battles took place in the Kivu
Kivu
Kivu was the name for a large "Region" in the Democratic Republic of Congo under the rule of Mobutu Sese Seko that bordered Lake Kivu. It included three "Sub-Regions" : Nord-Kivu, Sud-Kivu and Maniema, corresponding to the three current provinces created in 1986...
Province. On July 9, 1967, soldiers arrived at the camp to escort Fossey and her research workers down, and she was interned at Rumangabo
Rumangabo
Rumangabo is a military base of the Military of the Democratic Republic of the Congo located north of Goma in Nord-Kivu province. 3.5 km south of the military base is the headquarters of the Virunga National Park....
for two weeks. Fossey eventually escaped through bribery to Walter Baumgärtel's Travellers Rest Hotel in Kisoro
Kisoro
Kisoro is a town in Western Uganda. It is the 'chief town' of Kisoro District and the district headquarters are located there. The district was named after the town.-Location:...
, where her escort was arrested by the Ugandan military.
Advised by the Ugandan authorities not to return to Congo, after meeting Leakey in Nairobi, Fossey agreed with him against US Embassy advice to restart her study on the Rwandan side of the Virungas. In Rwanda, Fossey had met local American expatriate Rosamond Carr
Rosamond Carr
Rosamond Carr was an American humanitarian and author.She was born in South Orange, New Jersey. In 1942, she married the British explorer and film maker Kenneth Carr...
, who introduced her to Belgian
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
local Alyette DeMunck; DeMunck had a local's knowledge of Rwanda and offered to find Fossey a suitable site for study.
On September 24, 1967, Fossey founded the Karisoke
Karisoke
Karisoke Research Center in Rwanda was founded by Dian Fossey on 24 September 1967. The camp was the location of extensive studies on Mountain Gorillas....
Research Center, a remote rainforest
Rainforest
Rainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions based on a minimum normal annual rainfall of 1750-2000 mm...
camp nestled in Ruhengeri
Ruhengeri
Ruhengeri is a city and capital of Musanze District in the Northern Province of Rwanda. Some sources now refer to the city itself as Musanze, after the district in which it lies. It lies near the twin lakes of Lake Burera and Lake Ruhondo and is the gateway city to Volcanoes National Park and the...
province in the saddle of two volcanoes. For the research center's name, Fossey used “Kari” for the first four letters of Mt. Karisimbi that overlooked her camp from the south, and “soke” for the last four letters of Mt. Visoke, the slopes of which rose to the north, directly behind camp. Established 3000 metres (9,842.5 ft) up Mount Visoke, the defined study area covered 25 square kilometre. She became known by locals as Nyirmachabelli, roughly translated as "The woman who lives alone on the mountain."
Unlike the gorillas from the Congo side of the Virungas, the Karisoke area gorillas had never been partially habituated by Schaller's study; they knew humans only as poachers, and it took longer for Fossey to be able to study the Karisoke gorillas at a close distance.
Many research students left after not being able to handle the cold, dark, and extremely muddy conditions around Karisoke on the slopes of the Virunga Volcanoes, where paths usually have to be cut through six-foot-tall grass with a machete.
Legacy
After her death, Fossey's Digit Fund in the U.S. was renamed the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International. The Karisoke Research Center is operated by the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International, and continues the daily gorilla monitoring and protection that she started.One of Fossey's friends, Shirley McGreal, continues to work for the protection of primates through the work of her International Primate Protection League
International Primate Protection League
The International Primate Protection League , founded in 1973 in Thailand by Dr. Shirley McGreal, is represented in 31 countries and has offices in the UK and the US, and works toward the well being of non-human primates...
(IPPL) one of the few wildlife organizations that according to Fossey effectively promotes "active conservation".
Between Fossey's death until the 1994 Rwanda genocide, Karisoke was directed by former students some of whom had opposed her. During the genocide and subsequent period of insecurity, the camp was completely looted
Looting
Looting —also referred to as sacking, plundering, despoiling, despoliation, and pillaging—is the indiscriminate taking of goods by force as part of a military or political victory, or during a catastrophe, such as during war, natural disaster, or rioting...
and destroyed. Today only remnants remain of her cabin. During the civil war
Civil war
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same nation state or republic, or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly-united nation state....
the Virunga parks were filled with refugees and illegal logging destroyed vast areas.
Today, the Rwandan people have realized the importance of the mountain gorillas and their natural habitat. They have adapted the traditional household baby naming ceremony Kwita Izina
Kwita Izina
Kwita Izina is a Rwandan ceremony of giving a name to a new born baby gorilla. The ceremony's main goal is in helping monitor each individual gorilla and their groups in their natural habitat...
- into the Baby Gorilla Naming Ceremony in which each baby gorilla is given a name by invited guests and celebrities at an annual, internationally famous event under the patronage of the President.
Books
Mowat's Virunga, whose British and U.S. editions are called Woman in the Mist 'The Story of Dian Fossey and the Mountain Gorillas of Africa, was the first book-length biography of Fossey, and it serves as an insightful counterweight to the dramatizations and fiction of the movie. It includes many of Fossey's own letters and entries in her journals.A new book published in 2005 by National Geographic in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Palazzo Editions
Palazzo Editions
Palazzo Editions is an independent publishing company based in Bath, Somerset, southern England. The company produces illustrated books covering the areas of architecture, art, biography, children's books, fantasy, popular culture, and history....
in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
as No One Loved Gorillas More, written by Camilla de la Bedoyere, features for the first time Fossey's story told through the letters she wrote. Dreams: The Legacy of Dian Fossey was published, written by the investigative journalist Georgianne Nienaber.
More recently, the Kentucky Opera
Kentucky Opera
The Kentucky Opera is the state opera of Kentucky, located in Louisville. The operas are accompanied by the Louisville Orchestra. Founded in 1952 by Moritz von Bomhard, it is the twelfth oldest opera company in the United States and has a more than $2 million budget. The Kentucky Opera is an...
Visions Program, in Louisville
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...
, has written an opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
about Fossey. The opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
, entitled Nyiramachabelli, premiered on May 23, 2006.
Harold Hayes
Harold Hayes
Harold Thomas Pace Hayes was a main architect of the New Journalism movement.-Biography:He was born on April 18, 1926 in North Carolina.He was an editor of Esquire magazine from 1963 to 1973...
' book The Dark Romance of Dian Fossey was published in 1989 and compares the story of Fossey with versions as seen by others. Rosamond Carr
Rosamond Carr
Rosamond Carr was an American humanitarian and author.She was born in South Orange, New Jersey. In 1942, she married the British explorer and film maker Kenneth Carr...
, former head of the orphanage in Gisenyi who saved the lives of more than a thousand children and who knew Fossey, states in her biography (Land of a Thousand Hills) that the Dark Romance book was based on plain lies, just as the article which preceded it and proved to be particularly damaging.
She is also prominently featured in a book by the Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (magazine)
Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...
journalist Alex Shoumatoff
Alex Shoumatoff
Alex Shoumatoff , is an American writer known for his literary journalism, nature and environmental writing, and books and magazine pieces about political and environmental situations and world affairs...
called African Madness. Rosamond Carr was equally dismissive of that book's presentation of allegations.
Film biography
Universal StudiosUniversal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
bought the film rights to Gorillas in the Mist from Fossey in 1985, and Warner Bros. Studios bought the rights to the Hayes article, despite its having been severely criticized by Rosamond Carr
Rosamond Carr
Rosamond Carr was an American humanitarian and author.She was born in South Orange, New Jersey. In 1942, she married the British explorer and film maker Kenneth Carr...
. As a result of a legal battle between the two studios, a co-production was arranged.
Portions of Gorillas in the Mist and the Hayes article were adapted for Gorillas in the Mist: The Story of Dian Fossey
Gorillas in the Mist: The Story of Dian Fossey
Gorillas in the Mist is a 1988 American drama film directed by Michael Apted and starring Sigourney Weaver as naturalist Dian Fossey. It tells the true-life story of her work in Rwanda with Mountain Gorillas and was nominated for five Academy Awards....
(1988), starring Sigourney Weaver
Sigourney Weaver
Sigourney Weaver is an American actress. She is best known for her critically acclaimed role of Ellen Ripley in the four Alien films: Alien, Aliens, Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection, for which she has received worldwide recognition .Other notable roles include Dana...
. The book had covered Fossey's scientific career in great detail and omitted material on her personal life, such as her affair with photographer Bob Campbell
Robert M Campbell
Robert M "Bob" Campbell, wildlife photographer and filmmaker known for his footage and photographs of Dian Fossey and mountain gorillas published in the January 1970 issue of National Geographic....
. In the film, however, the affair with Campbell (played by Bryan Brown
Bryan Brown
Bryan Neathway Brown, AM is an Australian actor.-Early life:Brown was born in Sydney, the son of John Brown and Molly Brown, a house cleaner who worked as a pianist in the early days of the Langshaw School of Ballet. He grew up in the south-western Sydney suburb of Bankstown and began working at...
) formed a major subplot.
The Hayes article preceding the movie had portrayed Fossey as a woman completely obsessed with the gorillas, who would stop at nothing to protect them. And indeed the film included a fictitious scene in which Fossey orchestrated the mock hanging of a poacher, and another where she burned poachers' huts. It also introduced fictional characters, such as the animal trader Van Vecten, and changed the names of Fossey's students.
After making Gorillas in the Mist, Weaver became a supporter of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, and is now its Honorary Chair. In 2006, she traveled back to the Virungas to film Gorillas Revisited with the BBC.
In the 2011 BBC documentary All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace
All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace (television documentary series)
All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace is a three part BBC documentary series by filmmaker Adam Curtis, well known for other documentaries including The Century of the Self, The Trap and The Power of Nightmares...
, Adam Curtis
Adam Curtis
Adam Curtis is a British BAFTA winning documentarian and a writer, television producer, director and narrator. He works for BBC Current Affairs.-Early life and education:Curtis was born in 1955...
used Fossey as a symbol of the ideology of ecology
Ecology
Ecology is the scientific study of the relations that living organisms have with respect to each other and their natural environment. Variables of interest to ecologists include the composition, distribution, amount , number, and changing states of organisms within and among ecosystems...
, balance of nature and western post-colonial political exploits in Africa.
Books
- Dian Fossey: Gorillas in the Mist, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1983
- "Living with mountain gorillas", in The Marvels of Animal Behavior 208–229 (T.B. Allen ed., National Geographic Society), 1972
- D. Fossey & A.H. Harcourt: "Feeding ecology of free-ranging mountain gorilla (Gorilla gorilla beringei)", in Primate Ecology: Studies of Feeding and Ranging Behaviour in Lemurs, Monkeys and Apes 415–447 (T.H. Clutton-Brock ed., Academic Press), 1977
- "Development of the mountain gorilla (Gorilla gorilla beringei) through the first thirty-six months", in The Great Apes 139–186 (D.A. Hamburg & E.R. McCown eds., Benjamin-Cummings), 1979
Scholarly articles
- "An amiable giant: Fuertes's gorilla", Living Bird Quarterly 1(summer): 21–22, 1982
- "Mountain gorilla research, 1974", Nat. Geogr. Soc. Res. Reps. 14: 243–258, 1982
- "Mountain gorilla research, 1971–1972", Nat. Geogr. Soc. Res. Reps. 1971 Projects, 12: 237–255, 1980
- "Mountain gorilla research, 1969–1970", Nat. Geogr. Soc. Res. Reps. 1969 Projects, 11: 173–176, 1978
- The behaviour of the mountain gorilla, Ph.D. diss. Cambridge University, 1976
- "Observations on the home range of one group of mountain gorillas (Gorilla gorilla beringei)", Anim. Behav. 22: 568–581, 1974
- "Vocalizations of the mountain gorilla (Gorilla gorilla beringei)", Anim. Behav. 20: 36-531972
Magazine articles
- "His name was Digit", Int. Primate Protection League (IPPL) 5(2): 1–7, 1978
- "More years with mountain gorillas", Nat. Geogr. 140: 574–585, 1971
- "Making friends with mountain gorillas", Nat. Geogr. 137: 48–67, 1970
External links
- Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International
- International Primate Protection League
- The Legacy of Dian Fossey
- Fossey's first article for National Geographic, 1970
- Dian Fossey eco money with quote
- January 1970 article by Fossey in National Geographic - with pictures
- Murder in the Mist solved? Animal Welfare Institute Quarterly
- This article gives some information about the degradation of Dian's relationship with National Geographic Society prior to her death