Dian Fossey by Elsa

Gorillas. One of Africa’s great apes. They might someday change the world with a little help from a friendly and experienced person. Mountain gorillas, an endangered species, had help and had a great experience with a friendly female, Dian Fossey.

Fossey’s young life
Dian Fossey was a tall and intelligent girl, born on January 16, 1932 in San Francisco, California. Unfortunately, Fossey’s parents, Kathryn Kidd, who was a former model, and George, who was an insurance agent, divorced when Fossey was just a young girl. Fossey ended growing up with her mother and her step-father, businessman, Richard Price. Fossey made a love for animals of all kinds when she was a kid. She liked horses and began horse-riding lessons at age 6.

Young Education
In 1945, Fossey began high school at Lowell (loh-uh l) High School. Fossey made it through 4 years of high school successfully and graduated from high school in 1949 about ready to go to college in 1950. Fossey dreamed of being a veterinarian. When Fossey moved to San Diego, California she went to college.

Future Job?
When in college, Fossey studied to be a veterinarian. Unfortunately, Fossey, in her second year of college, got kicked out because she didn’t get good grades in physics and chemistry, two courses required for future veterinarians.

A starting to a Life
After, Fossey majored in occupational therapy. When in California, Fossey took a job as a hospital intern. She helped patients suffering from tuberculosis (too-bur-kyuh-luh s) at a hospital in California. At age 19, she took a summer job at a horse ranch in Montana. Sadly, she had chicken pox and had to quit the summer job. Also at age 19, Fossey signed up at the University of California to study pre-veterinary medicine courses.

Making a Move
In 1953, Fossey graduated from an occupational therapy course. In about a year, she graduated from San Jose State College in 1954. Fossey decided to leave California and go to Louisville, Kentucky when she saw an ad for an occupational therapist, she automatically applied. In Fall 1955, Dian Fossey arrived in Kentucky.

Working Hard
While in Louisville, Kentucky, 1955, Fossey served as the director at Kosair Crippled Children’s Hospital in the occupational therapy department. Fossey wasn’t necessarily alone on this one. She had a strong friendship at Kosair Crippled Children’s Hospital, a woman named Mary White Henry. Although Fossey had been spending most of her time working as an occupational therapist, Fossey still had a huge love for animals. She rented a farm to live in while in Kentucky and when Fossey had free time, she spent it by tending to farm animals. Fossey was a hard worker and had a special way with kids at Kosair which led her in earning a reputation. In total, Fossey had spent 8 years working at the Kosair Crippled Children’s Hospital.

Interest for Africa
She read a book about mountain gorillas by George Schaller in 1963. Fossey was quickly inspired after reading the book. Also in 1963, Fossey decided to take a seven-week trip in Eastern Africa. The trip required all of her life savings and an $8,000 loan. Dian Fossey was currently 34 years old when she left her job and home in Kentucky, on September 26, 1963 to go to Africa. Fossey became interested in primates and wanted to see Africa’s big-like creatures. In December 1966, she arrived at Nairobi [nahy-roh-bee], Kenya [ken-yuh, keen-] for the first time. When Fossey was in Africa for the first time, she found a guide named John Alexander, who was a British man. On Fossey’s seven-week trip she visited the camp of British anthropologist [an-thruh-pol-uh-jist] Louis Leakey.

Time to Study
Fossey then traveled back to Kentucky to have a lecture with Louis Leakey in Louisville in 1966. Louis Leakey, in 1966, picked Fossey to start a long-term field study of mountain gorillas. Fossey studied Swahili (swah-hee-lee) and learned how to study primatology to prepare her for her research.

Greeting Gorillas
After the great news, Fossey head back to Africa to study these interesting big-like creatures. In January 1967, Fossey set up a camp at Kabara in the Congo to study the magnificent creatures. It wasn’t that easy to fit in with the mountain gorillas. She thought of a way to fit in with the mountain gorillas. She pounded on her chest, made their sounds, walked on her knuckles, and groomed herself to imitate the gorilla’s behaviors. In 1967 a miracle brightened up Fossey’s day. Fossey encountered a gorilla named Digit. Digit was only about 5 years old when Fossey first encountered him.

That’s What I Call Working
She lived in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, among the mountain gorillas until the Civil War forced her to go to Rwanda [roo-ahn-duh] . Fossey established the Karisoke Research Center in the Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda in September 1967, after leaving her other camp in the Congo. Every morning Dian Fossey climbed up to gorilla territory with nothing much than a backpack, binoculars, and a notebook. She sat for hours just watching, observing, and taking notes about the gorillas. Everyday she took dozens of photos and every night she wrote in her journal about the events the day had. In total, she spent more than 2,000 hours observing mountain gorillas and wrote hundreds of pages of notes in Fossey’s first three years in Africa.

Discovering Develops
Fossey developed strong bonds with some of the big-like creatures and she cared deeply about all of them. From studying the mountain gorillas daily, Fossey got to know each gorilla individually. Fossey learned that each gorilla had its unique personality. A lot of living things deserve to have names, so Fossey gave the gorillas names that she thought suited them and to identify them easier and quicker. A few of the gorillas were named after Fossey’s family. Fossey named a couple gorillas Digit, Peanuts, and Uncle Bert.

Discoveries Ahoy!
Mountain gorillas live in social groups of up to 20 gorillas she learned. In Fossey’s first year at Karisoke, she managed to come within 20 feet of the group of gorillas know as group 5. During Fossey’s first years with mountain gorillas, she made many important discoveries about the gorillas’ behavior. For instance, Fossey discovered that each gorilla has a different nose print and that gorilla’s nose print changes over time.

Continuing Education
Fossey couldn’t stay in the jungle for the rest of her life, so Fossey left the jungle for seven months to study at a college in England at the University of Cambridge (keym-brij) to continue her education in 1970. While at Cambridge in 1970, Fossey enrolled in the department of animal behavior at Darwin College, Cambridge. Also, when Fossey was at Cambridge she wrote an important paper on the behavior of mountain gorillas. Fossey received a doctorate from Cambridge University in Cambridge, England, in 1974 for her research on mountain gorillas.

Some Anger Awakens
She chose to travel between Cambridge and Africa in 1974 at the time when Fossey received her doctorate. Fossey’s goal was to take a census (sen-suh s) of the region’s mountain gorilla population. Fossey decided to live full time in Rwanda in 1974. Sadly, Digit was stabbed and killed by poachers on December 31,1977 and this angered Fossey. Fossey began protecting the gorillas’ natural habitats and protecting the gorillas from being killed by poachers.

End of Education/ A Sad Moment
Her health also wasn’t doing well. Fossey experienced pneumonia (noo-mohn-yuh) in several episodes and she also suffered from asthma (az-muh). In June 1978, Fossey founded the Digit Fund in honor of Digit’s death and to raise money to protect mountain gorillas. In 1980, Fossey left Africa to become a visiting associate (uh-soh-shee-it) professor at Cornell University in Ithaca (ith-uh-kuh), New York. When in Fossey’s time in the United States, Fossey finished her book on mountain gorillas called Gorillas in the Mist. In the summer of 1983, Fossey traveled to Africa for the last time. During Fossey’s last time in Africa, a tragic story appeared. Unfortunately, Fossey was mysteriously murdered at Karisoke before sunrise on December 27, 1985.

Dian Fossey had a hard-working life indeed. Fossey’s work brought success to not only Fossey, but also to the mountain gorillas. Dian Fossey can still be remembered forever till millions of moons away.