Dian Fossey was an outstanding American zoologist who spent 18 eld living among gorillas. She was the first person to have voluntary involvement with a gorilla, when one of them touched her hand. She gained their complete trust and was adapted to sit amongst them and play with them and their young. Fossey was able to learn a broad deal about mountain gorillas during her feelmagazine. We now know over much(prenominal) more(prenominal) about gorillas behavior and their relationship to humans as a result of her work.
Dian Fossey was born in San Francisco California in 1932. She was the only child of George and Kitty Fossey. She had a difficult childhood. Her spawn drank heavily which led her parents to divorce when she was only three days old. After the divorce, Dian saw undersize of her father. When Dian was five her mother remarried a man physiqued Richard Price. Her new stepfather did not tr obliterate her nicely. She was forced to eat dinner in the kitchen with the housekeeper until she was ten. When she decided to attend college she received little support from her stepfather.
Dian Fossey attended San Jose State as a pre-veterinary school-age child and short changed her major to Occupational Therapy. After Dian Fossey was a learn occupational therapist she found a suppose at the Kosiar Childrens Hospital in Kentucky. Dian was often praised for her ability to communicate with the alter children in ways others could not. Although she love her job at the hospital, she pertinacioused to visualize more of the world. This desire led her to borrow against her next three-years net to finance a touch off to Africa. During her trip she was particularly raise in the excavations at Oldubia and the mountain gorillas of the Virunga Volcanoes of Central Africa.
In 1963, during her trip to Africa, she met Dr. Louis Leakey. At first Leaky saw Fossey as an plaguey tourist. She asked him for a tour of his digs. Even though he was much too busy to be giving tours, he concord to let her look approximately for a small fee. Dr. Leakey had average uncovered an important giraffe fossil. Dian was so exited to look at it that she slipped walking down a steep slope. She fell into the excavation, sprained her ankle, and modify the valuable specimen. To add to that the pain from her ankle caused her to vomit on the giraffe fossil. Even after spraining her ankle, Dian was determined to go on with her plans to see the great apes of the Virunga.
After her trip to Africa, Dian returned to Kentucky where she wrote whatever(prenominal) articles for the Louisville courier Journal about her experiences with the gorillas of the Virunga. In 1966, Dr. Leakey stopped at Louisville on a speaking tour. He then met with Dian. He told her that he was looking for someone to take on a semipermanent study of the mountain gorillas. He asked her if she would be interested. Although Fossey had no stiff training, Leakey was more interested in her determination to see the job through to the end than he was in her academic credentials. Fossey enthusiastically agreed to do the study. Leaky suggested jokingly, that she should have her appendix take a s a precaution since she would be operative so far away from medical help. Later he sent her a letter to tell her he wasnt stark about her appendix, but it was too late. Dian already had undergone the surgery.
Fossey left for Africa in late 1966 against her parents wishes. She spent her first few days with Jane Goodall at Gombe to study her methods. She then went to Nairobi where Leakey helped her obtain the supplies for her jungle camp. Her supplies include two tents and a used Land Rover that had the name LilyÂ.
The first few days on the mountain were highly lonely for Dian. The only two other people on that point were her tow African employees whose language she did not speak. Her determination do her to keep going and she was soon at work track the great apes. She first began by sneaking up mutely on them and quietly observing. She then changed her progression by announcing her front to the gorillas by imitating their sounds. After only six months she was able to approach some of the groups as close as thirty feet. As time went on she began to find just the right pleat of aggressiveness and aversion necessary to get close to the animals without excite them. As she was sitting among them one day, a young masculine shed named Peanuts came over and touched her. This was an overwhelming experience for Fossey. Soon after, several of the gorillas got used to being in very close meet with her. A young male gorilla named pattern soon became her favorite. He would play with her hair or gently bop her with leaves.
In 1970, Fossey left the gorillas to enroll in Cambridge and get her academic credentials. She didnt like it in that location at all because it wasnt Africa. She stuck it out because she knew that getting her Ph.D. was necessary to receive the grants to continue her gorilla studies in the field. In 1974, Dian received a Ph.D. in zoology.
        In 1976, Fossey became depressed. She had been spending little time in the field and more time doing paperwork. This was partly because she had graduate students working for and observing her. It was also because her health was failing. Her legs were rachitic and she had hairline fractures on her feet that made walking to have daily contacts with the gorillas impossible. one(a) day she ventured out to find them. When she approached she saw them huddled in concert against the rain. She decided not to get too close because she precious them to be wary of poachers. As she was sitting there notice them she felt cold and alone in the dark and brumous jungle. Suddenly she felt a comforting arm around her. She looked up to see Digits warm and gentle brown eyes. He patted her head, and they sat side by side cuddling in the rain.
Poaching was becoming an increasing problem. The poachers soon learned that there was money to be made by selling to Westerners gorilla heads and hands for trophies. Supplying zoos with gorilla babies for exhibition could make more money. Poaching was slowly causing many gorilla deaths.
On New Years Day in 1978, the body of Digit was found. He had died trying to defend his family from poachers. Fossey buried his body in a cemetery she built by her camp.
        After this she declare war on the poachers. She organized anti-poaching patrols and placed bounties on poachers heads. She killed their oxen if it strayed onto her land and even went as far as keen their houses. She began to require her students to carry guns and many began to claim that she was running a war rather than a camp. This was true, it was a war in the midst of herself and the gorillas against the poachers. She began to circulate stories that she was a sorceress who could curse her enemies and there were rumors of her torturing some poachers. Many people in the west began to wonder if by chance she was going insane.
The tension around her camp became so unacceptable that Dian was forced to leave Rwanda in 1981 and not return until 1983. During her time away she wrote a book titled, Gorillas in the Mist, now a well-known movie. After returning from her long absence, Dian was found polish off in her cabin on December 26th, 1985. She was buried in the cemetery next to her beloved gorillas. Her killer, probably a poacher, was never found.
I chose to write a biography on Dian Fossey because her animation was so fascinating. She was so determined to carry out her life long dreams of working with and bonding with gorillas. I also chose her because gorillas and how well-nigh related they are to humans also fascinates me. Although I could never live among gorillas in Africa, I find it amazing that she did it for 18 years. I think that maybe towards the end the isolation from a normal life, or maybe the memories of her terrible childhood swarm her to carry out some rather extreme consequences on the poachers. Despite her actions the last few years of her life, I esteem Dian Fossey for overcoming her sad and isolated childhood and carrying through with her life long dream. Today, there is an international Dian Fossey gorilla fund that is dedicated to the saving and protection of gorillas and their habitat in Africa.
Dian Fossey 1932-1985 No one loved gorillas more¦ Andrea Tropeano SCED 401 03/23/2001 Biography of a Scientist Works Cited Books Facklam, Margery. nonsensical Animals, Gentle Women. New York, NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich,         1978.
Mowat, Farley. Women in the Mists. New York, NY: Warner Books, 1987.
Schott, Jane A. Dian Fossey and the people Gorillas. Minneapolis, MN: Carolrhoda                 Books, 2000.
Online Sources Fossey, DianÂ. Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2000. 1997-2000 Microsoft Corporation.
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