Who Was Dian Fossey?

Dian Fossey was a zoologist best known for researching the endangered gorillas of the Rwandan mountain forest from the 1960s to the 1980s, and for her mysterious murder.

While working as an occupational therapist, Dian Fossey became interested in primates during a trip to Africa in 1963. She studied the endangered gorillas of the Rwandan mountain forest for two decades before her unsolved murder occurred in 1985, at Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda. Fossey told her story in the book Gorillas in the Mist (1983), which was later adapted for a film starring Sigourney Weaver.

Death and Legacy

Considered the world's leading authority on the physiology and behavior of mountain gorillas, Fossey fought hard to protect these "gentle giants" from environmental and human hazards. She saw these animals as dignified, highly social creatures with individual personalities and strong family relationships. Her active conservationist stand to save these animals from game wardens, zoo poachers, and government officials who wanted to convert gorilla habitats to farmland caused her to fight for the gorillas not only via the media, but also by destroying poachers' dogs and traps.

Tragically, on December 26, 1985, Fossey was found murdered, presumably by poachers, at her Rwandan forest camp. No assailant has ever been found or prosecuted.

Today, Dian Fossey's work continues through the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International (formerly named the Digit Fund), under which the Karisoke Research Foundation continues to operate, despite the odds: After Karisoke's original facility in Rwanda was destroyed during the Rwandan civil war, its headquarters were relocated to Musanze. The foundation recently brought in its first Rwandan director. According to the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund's website, "since Fossey's death in 1985, the Fund's activities have expanded to include the protection of Grauer's (eastern lowland) gorillas in the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as the mountain gorillas in that country's Virunga National Park and other endangered species in the gorillas' habitats."

Source: https://www.biography.com/scientist/dian-fossey