Dian Fossey: Animal Rights Activist and Protector of Mountain Gorillas
Dian’s Brave New World When it was Dian’s turn to talk to Louis her patience was rewarded The world-famous scientist greeted her warmly Miss Fossey isn’t it he said She was thrilled that Louis knew her At the time Dian worked at a hospital for children with physical and developmental disabilities Her passion though was for mountain gorillas Her desire to see them in person was the reason for her trip to Africa three years earlier In 1963 on her way to see some of the elusive creatures Dian and her guide had taken a side trip to Olduvai Gorge Louis’s legendary archaeological dig site After a brief and for Dian memorable meeting with the renowned scientist she carried on to her true destination the mountainside habitat of the rare mountain gorilla Amazingly thanks to a local tracker Dian managed to spot some of the mysterious creatures More amazingly she managed to get close enough to photograph them Upon her return from Africa Dian wrote a few newspaper articles about her encounter with the great apes Now she nervously handed the newspaper clippings to Louis He was so impressed with Dian’s photographs he invited her to a breakfast meeting the following morning to continue their gorilla discussion Of course she agreed Louis was famous for his work with fossils but he was also famous for launching the career of chimpanzee expert Jane Goodall At his morning meeting with Dian Louis told her he 66
oNe Big Happy Family Genetics is the study of physical characteristics and other biological traits that appear and develop in life forms over vast periods of time Genetically speaking humans chimpanzees gorillas and orangutans are members of the same family That family or group of related species is called hominidae the great apes This family includes humans chimpanzees bonobos which are closely related to chimps two species of orangutans and gorillas There are two main species or types of gorillas western and eastern Mountain gorillas are a type of eastern gorilla As their name suggests they live on the slopes of mountains They have longer shaggier coats than their lowland cousins Mountain gorilla Western gorillas Genetically chimpanzees and their close genetic relations bonobos are humans closest relatives These species share 98 8 percent of the same genetic information known as DNA Chimps and gorillas share 98 2 percent of their DNA This means that with a difference of only 1 2 percent between chimpanzees and humans chimps DNA is more closely related to ours than it is to gorillas Bonobo Meanwhile the genes of humans and gorillas differ by just 1 6 percent We differ from orangutans by 3 percent Just so you know all human beings share 99 9 per cent of the same genetic code This means that genetically every person is pretty much the same Chimpanzee Orangutan mother and baby 7
was looking for another researcher This time he was seeking someone to undertake a long term study of mountain gorillas He asked Dian if she would like to be that person She was stunned by the offer she had no formal training and she was 34 years old Surely she was too old and inexperienced for such a project Louis told Dian that her maturity was an advantage and that her passion was more important than scientific training I have no use Famous Fossil Family Louis Leakey was born in Kenya in 1903 His parents were British missionaries who worked with Kenya’s largest tribal group the Kikuyu Louis spoke Kikuyu before he spoke English When he was 13 he was initiated into the tribe and given the name Wakaruigi or Son of the sparrow hawk As a child Louis often wandered through the wilderness He occasionally found arrowheads and stone tools which sparked his interest in the history of humanity When he was a 21-year-old anthropology student Louis went on his first archaeological dig in Africa At the time experts believed humanity had originated in Asia Louis believed it had begun in Africa In 1931 he began his work at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania an area rich in fossils In 1936 he married Mary Nichols also an anthropologist Together they made a number of important finds including skulls teeth bones and tools These discoveries proved human ancestors had lived in Africa millions of years ago Louis also believed that long-term studies of great apes which are genetically similar to humans would teach scientists much about human evolution which is the gradual development of humans over a long period of time He commissioned Jane Goodall Dian Fossey and Birute Galdikas to undertake such studies Louis and Mary’s son Richard and his wife Meave continue Louis’s work today as does granddaughter Louise Louis Leakey died in 1972 88
for over-trained people he said I prefer people who are not specifically educated for this field since they go into the work with open minds and without prejudice and preconceptions Dian jumped at the chance to spend time in the wilderness with mountain gorillas it was a dream come true Eight months later Dian Fossey arrived in Africa to start her study of the great apes a passion that would consume 18 years of her life Louis called her the gorilla girl Anthropologists Mary and Louis Leakey with a tiny fossil specimen in 1962 Inset a replica based on a fossilized skull discovered by Mary and unearthed by her and Louis in 1959 The skull was of an early ancestor of humans and dated back more than 1 7 million years 9
