Woman of the Week – Dian Fossey

Dian Fossey is best known for dedicating her life to the study and appreciation of gorillas. She was an American primatologist and conservationist known for undertaking an extensive study of mountain gorilla groups from 1966 until her death in 1985. She was murdered while out studying the animals. It is believed she was killed because of her conservation efforts. She often butted heads with poachers.

She studied gorillas daily in the mountain forests of Rwanda. She wrote about her discoveries in her 1983 book, Gorillas in the Mist, which recounts her scientific study of the gorillas at Karisoke Research Center along with her own personal story. It was adapted into a 1988 film of the same name.

Called one of the foremost primatologists in the world, Fossey, along with Jane Goodall and Birutė Galdikas, were the so-called Trimates, a group of three prominent researchers on primates (Fossey on gorillas; Goodall on common chimpanzees; and Galdikas on orangutans). They were all recommended for the research by anthropologist Louis Leakey.

During her time in Rwanda, she actively supported conservation efforts and strongly opposed poaching and tourism in wildlife habitats. Her goal was to educate people and make more people acknowledge sapient gorillas.

Fossey founded the Karisoke Research Center, a remote rainforest camp tucked away in the Ruhengeri province in the saddle of two volcanoes in Rwanda. She worked 9,800 feet up Mount Bisoke within a research area of about 10 square miles. She became known by locals as Nyirmachabelli, or Nyiramacibiri, roughly translated as "the woman who lives alone on the mountain."

Before Rwanda, she did research on gorillas in Congo. Those animals were more welcoming to human interaction, so her early time with the gorillas in Rwanda was a shock. Those animals only knew humans as poachers and it took some time for them to become comfortable with humans at a close distance.

In the course of her years of research, Dian established herself as a true friend of the mountain gorilla. However, she formed a particularly close bond with one gorilla named Digit. He had a damaged finger on his right hand (hence, the name) and no playmates his age in his group. Over time, a true friendship would form.

Tragically, on Dec. 31, 1977, Digit was killed by poachers. He died helping to defend his group, allowing them to escape safely. He was stabbed multiple times and his head and hands were severed. Poachers sold his hands as cheap souvenirs. It was then that Dian Fossey declared war on the poachers.

Fossey became more intense in protecting the gorillas and began to employ more direct tactics to combat poaching. She and her staff cut animal traps almost as soon as they were set; frightened, captured and humiliated the poachers; held their cattle for ransom; and burned their hunting camps and even mats from their houses.

She then returned to the U.S. for some time to work on her manuscript for Gorillas in the Mist. After publication she returned back to her camp for more research.

Fossey was brutally murdered in her cabin at a remote camp in Rwanda in December 1985. It has been theorized that her murder was linked to her conservation efforts. Originally, some suspected robbery as her belongings were strewn about, but none of her valuables were taken. The case has never been solved, even to this day.

After Fossey's death, her entire staff, including Emmanuel Rwelekana, a tracker she had fired months before, were arrested. All were later released except Rwelekana, who was later found dead in prison, supposedly by suicide.

Rwandan courts later tried and convicted Wayne McGuire, a research student, in absentia for her murder. McGuire had returned to the United States in July 1987. No extradition treaty exists between the U.S. and Rwanda, so McGuire, whose guilt is still widely questioned, has not served his sentence.

Fossey was buried among her gorilla friends, including Digit. Fossey's Digit Fund in the U.S. was renamed the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International. The Karisoke Research Center is operated by the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International, and continues the daily gorilla monitoring and protection that she started.