Dian Fossey

Fossey, Dian, 1932-85, American zoologist, b. San Francisco, who lived and worked with the mountain gorillas of central Africa, adding immeasurably to the understanding of their behavior. She received a bachelor's degree from San Jose State College (now San Jose State Univ.) in 1954 and worked for a short time as an occupational therapist before traveling to Africa to meet Louis Leakey. He encouraged her, and she began her field studies in the Congo in 1966. Arrested and forced to leave during a military uprising, she moved to Rwanda and set up the Karisoke Research Center, which she directed from 1967 to 1980. Living a solitary life for many years, she observed the gorillas' habits and gradually gained their acceptance. Concerned with threats to the gorillas from loss of habitat and from poachers, she wrote Gorillas in the Mist (1983) to acquaint the public with their plight. She was found murdered at her camp in 1985.

(born Jan. 16, 1932, San Francisco, Calif., U.S.—found dead Dec. 26, 1985, Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda) U.S. zoologist. She was working as an occupational therapist when, on a trip to Africa in 1963, she met Louis Leakey (see Leakey family), who persuaded her to return to study the mountain gorilla in its natural habitat. Owing to her patient and nonthreatening interactions, the gorillas of Rwanda's Virunga Mountains became accustomed to her presence, and she was able to gather detailed knowledge of their habits, communication, and social structure. She obtained a Ph.D. in 1974 and taught at Cornell University while remaining involved with the Karisoke Research Center in Africa, which she had established in 1967. She recounted her observations in Gorillas in the Mist (1983; film, 1988). She actively protected the gorillas from poachers, who are suspected of her murder at Karisoke.

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Dian Fossey (January 16, 1932, San Francisco, California – December 26, 1985, Virunga Mountains, Rwanda) was an American zoologist who completed an extended study of gorilla groups over a period of 18 years. She observed them daily for years in the mountain forests of Rwanda, initially encouraged to work there by famous paleontologist Louis Leakey.

Her work is somewhat similar to Jane Goodall's work with chimpanzees.

Education and early education

Dian enrolled in a pre-veterinary course in biology at the University of California, Davis, after attending Lowell High School in San Francisco, going against the advice of her stepfather who wanted her to pursue business instead. She supported herself by working as a clerk at the White House Department Store, doing other clerking and laboratory work, and working as a machinist in a factory. Dian later transferred to San José State College (now San José State University) to study occupational therapy after having difficulty with chemistry and physics. She received her bachelor's degree in 1954. At that time, Dian also established herself as an equestrian.

Initially following her college major, Fossey began a career in occupational therapy. She would become director of the occupational therapy department at Kosair Children's Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky . While working in Louisville (living a few miles south of the town on a farm called Glenmary) she attended a lecture by Louis Leakey. She subsequently received her PhD from Darwin College, Cambridge, for a thesis entitled 'The behaviour of the mountain gorilla' in 1976. Between 1981 and 1983 Dian Fossey lectured as Professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

Interest in Africa

Fossey became interested in Africa after seeing photos and hearing about Africa itself from a friend (Mary White Henry) who had been there. After taking out a loan in 1963 she embarked on a trip to Africa. At Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, Fossey met Dr. Louis Leakey and his wife Mary Leakey while they were examining the area for hominid fossils. Louis talked to Dian about the work of Jane Goodall and the importance of long term research of the great apes, work pioneered by George Schaller. After leaving the Leakeys Dian saw her first wild mountain gorillas during a visit to Uganda.

By 1966 Fossey had gained the support of Dr. Leakey, and through him, funds to carry out long-term research on the mountain gorillas. She began her field study at Kabara, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (then Zaire), but by 1967, political upheaval forced her to move to Rwanda.

Work

In 1967, she founded the Karisoke Research Centre, a remote rainforest camp nestled in the Virunga Mountains in Ruhengeri province, Rwanda. When her photograph, taken by Bob Campbell, 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 bad 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 strongly supported "active conservation"—for example anti-poaching patrols and preservation of natural habitat—as opposed to "theoretical conservation", which includes the promotion of tourism. She was also strongly opposed to zoos, as the capture of individual animals all too often involves the killing of their family members. Many animals do not survive the transport, and the breeding rate and survival rate in zoos are often lower than in the wild. For example, in 1978, Fossey attempted to prevent the export of two young gorillas, Coco and Pucker, from Rwanda to the Cologne, Germany, zoo. She learned that, during their capture, 20 adult gorillas had been killed. The two captives were given to Fossey by their captors for treatment of injuries suffered during capture and captivity. With considerable effort, she restored them to some approximation of health. They 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" (zoos) for the entertainment of people as unethical.

Fossey is responsible for the revision of a European Community project that converted parkland into pyrethrum farms. Thanks to her efforts, the park boundary was lowered from the 3000-meter line to the 2500-meter line.

When Fosseys favourite gorilla, Digit was decapitated for the price of 20$ by poachers in 1978, she created the Digit Fund with the intent to raise money for anti-poaching patrols.

Fossey's 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 of all time.

Death

Fossey was brutally murdered in the bedroom of her cabin on December 26, 1985. Her skull had been split by a panga (machete), a tool widely used by poachers, which she had confiscated 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 and 2 meters away from the hole in the cabin that was cut on the day of her murder. Despite the violent nature of the wound, there was relatively little blood in her bedroom, leading some to believe that she was killed before the head-wound was inflicted, as head wounds, even superficial ones, usually bleed profusely.

Farley Mowat's biography of Fossey, Woman in the Mists, posits that it is unlikely that she was killed by poachers. Mowat believes that she was killed by those who viewed her as an impediment to the touristic and financial exploitation of the gorillas. According to the book, which includes many of Fossey's own private letters, poachers would have been more likely to kill her in the forest, with little risk to themselves.

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 poachers. But 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, all while Fossey could have had enough time to escape. The cabin was in great disarray, with broken glass on the floor and tables and other furniture turned around. Fossey was found dead with her gun beside her, but the ammunition was of the wrong caliber and didn't fit the weapon. All of Fossey's valuables in the cabin, thousands of dollars in cash and travelers' checks, and photo equipment remained untouched—valuables a poor poacher would most likely have taken.

After Fossey's death, her entire staff, including Rwelekana, a tracker she had fired months before, was arrested. All but Rwelekana, who was later found dead in prison, supposedly having hanged himself, were released. Mowat believes that Fossey was murdered by an African man she may have admitted inside her cabin but who was working for the very people who wanted her removed so the gorillas could be exploited as a tourist and entertainment attraction.

According to Linda Melvern in her book Conspiracy to Murder, Protais Zigiranyirazo, Préfait 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.

Dian Fossey was portrayed by her detractors as eccentric and obsessed, and all kinds of stories were circulated about her. According to her letters, ORTPN, the World Wildlife Fund, African Wildlife Foundation, FPS, 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. The public often believed their money would go to Fossey, who was struggling to finance her anti-poaching patrols, while organizations collecting in her name put it into costly 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."

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 own 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.

Fossey's will stated that all her money (including proceeds from the movie) should go to the Digit Fund to finance anti-poaching patrols. However, her mother, Kitty Price, challenged the will and won.

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.

Dian Fossey is interred in Rwanda at Karisoke Research Station in a site that she herself had constructed for her dead gorilla friends. She was buried in the gorilla graveyard next to Digit, who was killed and beheaded in 1978, and near many gorillas killed by poachers.

Legacy

After her death, Fossey's Digit Fund in the U.S. was renamed the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International. The Digit Fund in the UK, which Fossey lost to the Fauna Protection League (FPS), was also renamed after her as "The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund UK" (DFGF-UK). However she never received any funds collected in her name by the FPS; and although some conservationists associated with the FPS wanted her to be removed from Rwanda FPS and the DFGF-UK (which renamed itself The Gorilla Organisation in 2006), they continue to use her name up to this day for their financial purposes (including promotion of tourism, which Dian opposed, and the financing of local bureaucrats).

One of Dian 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 promote "active conservation".

In his book " The Dark Romance" H. Hayes writes that after Dian's death no poacher dared to enter the forest out of fear of being arrested as a murder suspect and that after the conviction of one of her students poaching soared again eleminating all remaining elephants and leopards.

Between Fossey's death until the 1994 Rwanda genocide, Karisoke was directed by former students who had opposed her. During the genocide, the camp was completely looted and destroyed. Today only remnants remain of her cabin that was converted into a museum for tourists at the time. During the civil war the Virunga parks were filled with refugees and illegal logging destroyed vast areas.

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 Dian Fossey, and it serves as an insightful counterweight to the dramatizations and fiction of the movie. It includes many of Dian's own letters and entries in her journals.

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 to her family and friends. The book was published to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of her death, and includes many of Bob Campbell's previously unpublished photographs.

In 2006, Gorilla Dreams: The Legacy of Dian Fossey was published, written by the investigative journalist Georgianne Nienaber. Although Fossey’s death is officially unsolved, recently released documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, as well as testimony from the International War Crimes Tribunal proceedings, offer new suspects, motives, and opportunities. Every fact about Fossey’s life is meticulously annotated. However, the setting of her conversations with the murdered gorillas is obviously fictional, yet steeped in Rwandan tradition. she was a good scientist

More recently, the Kentucky Opera Visions Program, in Louisville, has written an opera about Dian Fossey. The opera, entitled Nyiramachabelli, premiered on May 23, 2006.

A book called the Dark Romance of Dian Fossey was published in 1989 and compares the story of Dian Fossey with versions as seen by others. However, much of the book is uncited and it repeats the salacious and racist stories created by her detractors. Rosamond Carr, former head of the orphanage in Gisenyi who saved the lives of more than a thousand children and who knew Dian 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{7} For instance, the book claims that Fossey became a racist because, as stated in the book, she was gang-raped by Rwandan soldiers an event that Fossey and her friends repeatedly and vehemently denied.

She is also prominently featured in a book by the Vanity Fair journalist Alex Shoumatoff called African Madness. A book which according to Rosamond Carr falls into the same category as "Dark Romance".

Movie

Portions of her book Gorillas in the Mist were later adapted as the film Gorillas in the Mist: The Story of Dian Fossey, starring Sigourney Weaver as Fossey. The written work covers her scientific career in much greater detail, and omits material on her personal life, including her affair with photographer Bob Campbell (which formed a major subplot of the movie, in which Campbell was played by Bryan Brown). The movie however which was also based on an article by H. Hayes also portrayed Fossey as a woman completely obsessed by "her" gorillas, who would stop at nothing to protect them. It includes a fictitious scene in which she orchestrated the mock hanging of a poacher and another where she burned poachers' huts. The movie invented characters, including the animal trader Van Vecten, and changed the names of Fossey's students. Universal studios bought the rights to Gorillas in the Mist from Fossey in 1985. The article by H.Hayes, which preceded the book "Dark Romance" was bought by Warner Bros Studios who also planned to film a movie. As a result of a legal battle the two studios agreed on a co-production. In her book Land of a Thousand Hills Rosamond Carr, former head of the orphanage in Gisenyi, states that the H.Hayes article was simply a plain lie. In the movie Rosamond Carr is potrayed by Julie Harris known from East of Eden. Sigourney Weaver became honorary chairman of the Digit Fund later renamed The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International

Quotes

• "When you realize the value of all life, you dwell less on what is past and concentrate more on the preservation of the future.”"
• The last words printed carefully in Dian's journal on the final page.
• "No, I won't let them turn this mountain into a goddamn zoo."
• Sigourney Weaver as Dian Fossey in the movie Gorillas in the Mist. In 1990, more than 10,000 tourists visited the Virungas while the gorilla population remained about 350. In 2005, eight gorillas died of measles which were transmitted by tourists.

Written works by Fossey

• Dian Fossey: Gorillas in the Mist, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1983
• "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
• "The imperiled mountain gorilla", National Geographic 159: 501-523, 1981
• "Mountain gorilla research, 1971-1972", Nat. Geogr. Soc. Res. Reps. 1971 Projects, 12: 237-255, 1980
• "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
• "Mountain gorilla research, 1969-1970", Nat. Geogr. Soc. Res. Reps. 1969 Projects, 11: 173-176, 1978
• "His name was Digit", Int. Primate Protection League (IPPL) 5(2): 1-7, 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: 36-53, 1972
• "Living with mountain gorillas", in The Marvels of Animal Behavior 208-229 (T.B. Allen ed., National Geographic Society), 1972
• "More years with mountain gorillas", Nat. Geogr. 140: 574-585, 1971
• "Making friends with mountain gorillas", Nat. Geogr. 137: 48-67, 1970
• 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

Notes

External links

• Murder in the Mist solved? Animal Welfare Institute Quarterly
• Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International
• http://ippl.org
• The Legacy of Dian Fossey
• Dian Fossey Murder Files
• Dian Fossey eco money with quote
• January 1970 article by Fossey in National Geographic - with pictures