Posted
on January 16, 2015
She lived with the apes!
Dian
Fossey, who was born on this date in 1932, was such an important
primatologist, she was considered one of the Trimates.
Okay,
let's define some of those terms.
A
primatologist is someone who studies primates: lemurs and their
cousins, monkeys, and apes like chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans,
and humans. In the case of Fossey, she studied gorillas in the
African country of Rwanda.
The
Trimates are a group of three important and famous researchers on
primates: Dian Fossey studying gorillas, Jane Goodall studying
chimpanzees, and Birute Galdikas studying orangutans. The
anthropologist Louis Leakey encouraged these women to study the great
apes in their natural environments.
Dian
Fossey was born and raised in California, and she followed her
step-father's advice to enroll in a business course at a college near
her home in San Francisco. However, she loved-loved-loved animals, so
she ended up switching to a pre-veterinary course so that she could
work with animals. Her step-father didn't agree with her choice and
chose not to support the choice financially. So Fossey worked hard at
a variety of jobs while at university, and she ended up flunking out
of the program! She had to change majors and colleges again, and she
earned a bachelor's degree in occupational therapy in 1954. She
interned and worked at occupational therapy at a variety of hospitals
in California and Kentucky—and in 1963 she plunked down her life's
savings and a year's salary worth of borrowed money in order to visit
Africa for seven weeks.
Fossey
traveled in Kenya, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and
Rhodesia. She met Louis and Mary Leakey at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania,
where the Leakeys were looking for early ancestors of humans. Louis
Leakey told her about the work of Jane Goodall and explained the
importance of long-term research on great apes. A bit later, Fossey
was nursing a broken ankle near a photographer couple, and she was
privileged to see some wild mountain gorillas. What a thrill!When Fossey returned home to the U.S., she published three articles in the local newspaper about her visit to Africa. Later, when Leakey was on a lecture tour in the United States, Fossey attended the lecture, reintroduced herself to the anthropologist, and showed him those articles.
It
wasn't long before Leakey invited Fossey to study gorillas; he
started arranging for funding while she took classes in Swahili and
primatology.
How
do you do a long-term study of wild mountain gorillas? You have to go
where they live, you have to live in a primitive camp, and you have
to be very patient. One more thing, Fossey soon realized, is that you
have to copy the gorillas to become accepted by them. She copied
their gestures, their grunting sounds, and even their diet of the
local celery plant. Eventually the gorillas allowed her a closer
vantage point with which to study them.
Fossey
had started her studies in the Congo, but there was political unrest
and violent battles. In 1967 soldiers arrived at Fossey's camp to
escort her and her research workers down the mountain. She ended up
relocating to Rwanda, where she lived the next 18 years of her
life—until she was murdered, probably by someone who was upset by
her conservation and anti-poaching efforts.
Enchanted Learning offers
print-outs and quizzes about gorillas, and
NationalGeographic Kids
offers a slideshow and map.
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