Dian Fossey is a common name, especially when one visits the Virunga region. Not only is the name mentioned, but its historical importance has influenced many achievements that are still visible today.
She was born in 1932 and lived in the city of San Francisco. During her early years, she witnessed her parents’ divorce and, for legal reasons, lived with her mother, who later remarried.
With her new family, she received support from her stepfather, a successful businessman, who helped her to succeed from a very young age.
Growing up, she developed a strong interest in horse riding, which she learned over time. She later went to Marine Junior College, where she hoped to follow her stepfather’s career path.
She enrolled in a business course. During her holidays as a teenager, she worked on ranches in Montana. Together with her childhood experiences, her love for animals grew stronger.
At university, she enrolled in a pre-veterinary sciences course but later dropped it because of difficulties with some course units. She left the University of California and joined San Jose College.
She decided to change her career and settled for Occupational Therapy. She worked hard and graduated in 1954. She spent her early career working in hospitals. While working in Kentucky, she came across many farms nearby.
She spent much of her free time there, and it was very special to her. A friend who had traveled to Africa met her after a few years and shared some photos. What she saw shaped her desire to travel to Africa.
She took a bank loan to fund her travel and set off in 1963. Her first stop was Kenya. She later visited Tanganyika (present-day Tanzania), Rhodesia, and Zaire.
Her trips were exciting, especially when she visited Tsavo National Park and the Ngorongoro Crater.
While in Tanganyika, she visited the Olduvai Gorge, where the skull of the first African was found. She ended her tour at Mount Mikeno in Zaire.
While in Zaire, she met Dr. George Schaller, who was studying mountain gorillas in the Virunga region. In 1959, Dian had read his work, which had greatly inspired her.
It was then she decided to stay in Africa. When she returned to Kentucky, she put her photos together and published a photo magazine, which was very good work.
After first meeting him at Olduvai Gorge, Dian met Dr. Louis Leakey again after one of his lectures near her home.
After talking for a long time, Dr. Leakey admired her efforts and promised to find funding for her if she wanted to work in Africa.
He succeeded, and she returned to Africa through Nairobi in 1966. She traveled to the Virunga region, with a stop at Gombe Stream Research Center.
This center aimed to help conserve chimpanzees and was led by Jane Goodall.
Dian spent some time living in Rhodesia (present-day Zimbabwe) before moving into Zaire (D.R. Congo). There, she settled in a place called Kabara, where she began her research and gorilla tracking.
She tracked gorillas from a distance and soon realized there were different gorilla families in the area. She identified at least three families.
However, her research work was interrupted when political unrest broke out in the capital of Zaire.
This unrest spread to her area in Kivu Province. One day, soldiers entered her camp and told her she needed to be moved to a safer place.
Her property was packed up, and she and her helper were taken under military protection to a camp in Rumangabo. She bribed some soldiers to help her escape to Kisoro District in Uganda.
When she met her friend there, the friend informed the Uganda army, who arrested the Zairean soldiers that had planned to return her to Zaire. She stayed in Uganda for a while and later moved her research base to Rwanda.
In Rwanda, she received support from fellow researchers, which helped her get access to Volcanoes National Park.
She was very disappointed to find heavy poaching and land encroachment on the slopes of Mount Karisimbi. When she finally entered the forest, she had her first close view of the great Virunga ranges.
She restarted her research and decided to set up an institute for her work. She used the names “Kari” and “Soke,” taken from Mountains Karisimbi and Visoke.
She worked on gorilla habituation and conservation. Her efforts gained attention in 1968 after she successfully habituated four gorilla families. She later enrolled for a Ph.D. in Animal Behavior at Cambridge University.
She completed the program in 1974. This academic qualification helped bring more attention to her work from the academic world.
During her work, Dian made a gorilla friend called “Digit.” Sadly, Digit was killed by poachers in 1977, against whom Dian was strongly fighting.
Dian later lost her life in 1985 when she was murdered by machete strikes to her head. She was buried behind her former cabin.
Her grave is next to Digit’s. After her death, her work influenced more research and conservation efforts. To honor her tireless work in saving mountain gorillas, a research and conservation fund was set up.
This fund has continued to support the goals of the Karisoke Research Center.
