"No one love gorillas more..." epitaph on the tombstone of Dian Fossey (1/16/32 - 12/26/85).
The power behind love and romance is passion. Passion can spark respect, friendship, or love, and sometimes, it can move mountains. In the case of Dian Fossey, passion inspired a lasting friendship and moved mountains...making groundbreaking advances in the efforts to save the endangered Mountain Gorilla from poachers, as well as extinction.
An Occupational Therapist working and living in Kentucky, Dian did not seem like the likely candidate for mountain gorilla research. However, she had a knack for communicating with disabled children and could make progress where others could not. And, she had a desire to see the excavations at Olduvia and the gorillas of the Virunga Volcanoes of Zaire, Central Africa. In 1963, after a seven-week safari expedition, where she would see the Mountain Gorilla in their natural habitat, Dian's interest turned into a full-fledged passion. She returned to Kentucky with a dream to study gorillas and wrote several articles about them.
Three years later, her determination had enabled her to acquire the support of Dr. Louis Leakey (the paleoanthropologist who excavated Olduvia) the funds necessary to travel to Africa to study the objects of her devotion. Louis Leakey believed that studies of the apes would have impact on understanding the primate fossils he had dug up, and agreed to fund Fossey's project. With some pointers from Jane Goodall (famous for her work with the chimpanzees of Gombe), Dian set off to build friendships with the mountain gorillas of Zaire.
Says Fossey, in Gorillas of the Mist, of her first encounter with the apes, "Their bright eyes darted nervously from under heavy brows as though trying to identify us as familiar friends or possible foes."
After obeserving the gorillas of Zaire, Fossey moved to Rwanda, where she began the Karisoke Research Center. Fossey was diligent and patient in her 18 years' worth of effort to befriend the Mountain Gorillas and earned their trust. In 1970, the first ever recorded human contact with a gorilla occurred between "Peanuts" and Fossey. After that initial breakthrough, she was able to sit with them and play with their young. A certain young gorilla named "Digit" became the favourite of all her new friends.
Fossey took her studies further by enrolling in Cambridge University to get a degree in zoology (1970 - 1974). She then returned to the home of the gorillas to continue her gorilla research. On January 1, 1978, the body of Digit was discovered by Fossey's students. It was believed that he died while defending his family from poachers. His hands and head had been hacked off. Fossey built a cemetery by her camp and buried his remains. As a result of the terrible loss, Fossey started the "Digit Fund" and pledged the rest of her life in pursuit of saving the gorillas. Another favourite friend, "Uncle Bert"---so named for her beloved uncle Albert Chapin, was murdered. To Fossey, the loss of her two friends meant war had been declared. And so began her anti-poaching activities.
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