Diane Fossey biography in English. Dian Fossey - biography, brief historical background
Diane has been riding horses since childhood, and after graduating from Lowell High School, she attended the College of Marin, where she studied business. However, Diane never became a businesswoman.
Dian Fossey was born in 1932 in San Francisco, California. Her parents, former sailor George E. Fossey III, and fashion model Kathryn "Kitty" (Kidd) Fossey, divorced when she was 6 years old. A year later, her mother remarried a businessman named Richard Price. Diane's father tried for some time to maintain contact with his daughter, but her mother was not very willing to support this endeavor, and as a result, contact with her father was broken.
Diane has been riding horses since childhood, and after graduating from Lowell High School, she attended the College of Marin, where she studied business. However, Diane never became a businesswoman. The decision to change careers came at the age of 19, when Fossey spent the summer on a ranch in Montana. It was there that her love for animals was revived, and Diane, without hesitation, entered the preparatory department of the veterinary faculty of the University of California, Davis. In 1954, she received her bachelor's degree, although her studies as a whole were not easy for her - the girl had to work hard with basic courses in chemistry and physics.
As an intern, Diane completed an internship in several hospitals in California and even worked with tuberculosis patients.
![](https://i1.wp.com/peoples.ru/science/biology/dian_fossey/fossey_3.jpg)
A year later, she moved to Louisville, Kentucky, where she got a job at Kosair Crippled Children's Hospital. It was in Louisville that Diane became very close friends with the wife of one of the doctors named Mary White "Gaynee" Henry ), who worked as a secretary at the same hospital. In 1963, she joined her on a trip to Africa (Africa). In September, they arrived in Nairobi, Kenya, and it was there that Diane went on a safari that produced her. Over the next seven weeks, Fossey traveled to Kenya, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe and Rwanda, and it was there that she first saw Africa; mountain gorillas. So, these wild animals delighted and touched Diane so much that when she received an offer from the famous zoologist and paleontologist Louis Leakey to join his group studying these animals, she immediately accepted the offer.
So, Dian Fossey lived with mountain gorillas for 18 years, and she knew for sure that the main danger for these smart and funny, strong and unpredictable animals is humans. So, besides scientific work, Diane was constantly fighting... with people. Her implacable enemies were poachers - ruthless and inhumane, who did not even try to understand that by 1980 there were only 250 mountain gorillas left on Earth. Diane studied these animals patiently and sensitively, constantly risking her life, she waited for years for the gorillas to accept her into the pack. In the end, she won - she was accepted. So, she lived alone among these mighty, largest monkeys in the world, studying their habits, skills and, no matter how strange it may sound, culture.
![](https://i1.wp.com/peoples.ru/science/biology/dian_fossey/fossey_2.jpg)
When her photograph appeared on the cover in January 1970, National Geographic Magazine", Diane became famous. In 1975, she became the main character movie "In Search of the Giant Apes". In 1980, she received her PhD from Cambridge University in Great Britain and was named the world's leading expert on the physiology and behavior of mountain gorillas. Fossey taught her own course at Cornell University from 1981-1983, during which time she wrote her best-selling book, Gorillas in the Mist. By the way, this book is still the best-selling book in the world about gorillas; it was made into a film in 1988.
Diane's life ended tragically in 1985. The cause of the tragedy was the same poachers with whom Fossey fought. real war. So, on December 27, 1985, Dian Fossey was found murdered in the bedroom of her hut in the Virunga Mountains in Rwanda. She was brutally hacked to death with a machete; the killer remained unknown, although it was no secret to anyone that they were local poachers who took revenge on the brave researcher.
![](https://i0.wp.com/peoples.ru/science/biology/dian_fossey/fossey_1.jpg)
Fossey was buried at Karisoke, in the cemetery she had set up for her fallen gorilla friends, next to her pet, Digit. Memorial services were held in New York, Washington and California.
It is known that, despite the fact that, according to Diane’s will, all her money, including proceeds from sales of the book “Gorillas in the Mist,” should have gone to the fight against poaching, her mother challenged this in court and won the case.
Diane has been riding horses since childhood, and after graduating from Lowell High School, she attended the College of Marin, where she studied business. However, Diane never became a businesswoman.
Dian Fossey was born in 1932 in San Francisco, California. Her parents, former sailor George E. Fossey III, and fashion model Kathryn "Kitty" (Kidd) Fossey, divorced when she was 6 years old. A year later, her mother remarried a businessman named Richard Price. Diane's father tried for some time to maintain contact with his daughter, but her mother was not very willing to support this endeavor, and as a result, contact with her father was broken.
Diane has been riding horses since childhood, and after graduating from Lowell High School, she attended the College of Marin, where she studied business. However, Diane never became a businesswoman. The decision to change careers came at the age of 19, when Fossey spent the summer on a ranch in Montana. It was there that her love for animals was revived, and Diane, without hesitation, entered the preparatory department of the veterinary faculty of the University of California, Davis. In 1954, she received her bachelor's degree, although her studies in general were not easy for her - the girl had to work hard from the basics
courses in chemistry and physics.
As an intern, Diane completed an internship in several hospitals in California and even worked with tuberculosis patients.
A year later, she moved to Louisville, Kentucky, where she got a job at Kosair Crippled Children's Hospital. It was in Louisville that Diane became very close friends with the wife of one of the doctors named Mary White "Gaynee" Henry ), who worked as a secretary at the same hospital. In 1963, she joined her on a trip to Africa (Africa). In September, they arrived in Nairobi, Kenya, and it was there that Diane went on a safari that produced her. Over the next seven weeks, Fossey traveled to Kenya, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe and Rwanda, and it was there that she first saw Africa; So, these wild animals delighted and touched Diane so much that when she received an offer from the famous zoologist and paleontologist Louis Leakey to join his group studying these animals, she immediately accepted the offer.
Dian Fossey lived with mountain gorillas for 18 years, and she knew for sure that the main danger to these smart and funny, strong and unpredictable animals is humans. So, in addition to scientific work, Diane waged a constant struggle... with people. Her implacable enemies were poachers - ruthless and inhumane, who did not even try to understand that by 1980 there were only 250 mountain gorillas left on Earth. Diane studied these animals patiently and sensitively, constantly risking her life, she waited for years for the gorillas to accept her into the pack. In the end, she won - she was accepted. So, she lived alone among these mighty, largest monkeys in the world, studying their habits, skills and, no matter how strange it may sound, culture.
When her photograph appeared on the cover of National Geographic Magazine in January 1970, Diane became famous. In 1975, she became the main character in the film Quest for the Giant Apes. In 1980, she received her PhD from Cambridge University in Great Britain and was named the world's leading expert on the physiology and behavior of mountain gorillas. Fossey taught her own course at Cornell University
at Cornell University from 1981-1983, during which time she wrote her best-selling book, Gorillas in the Mist. By the way, this book is still the best-selling book in the world about gorillas; it was made into a film in 1988.
Diane's life ended tragically in 1985. The cause of the tragedy was the same poachers with whom Fossey waged a real war. So, on December 27, 1985, Dian Fossey was found murdered in the bedroom of her hut in the Virunga Mountains in Rwanda. She was brutally hacked to death with a machete; the killer remained unknown, although it was no secret to anyone that they were local poachers who took revenge on the brave researcher.
Fossey was buried at Karisoke, in the cemetery she had set up for her fallen gorilla friends, next to her pet, Digit. Memorial services were held in New York, Washington and California.
It is known that, despite the fact that, according to Diane’s will, all her money, including proceeds from sales of the book “Gorillas in the Mist,” should have gone to the fight against poaching, her mother challenged this in court and won the case.
Years of life: 1932 - 1985
According to the Monkey Queen Dian Fossey, she ended up in Africa “not by fate or evil rock“- she just “had a great desire to see wild and, as she was told, dangerous animals and to live among them in that world that has not yet been completely changed by people.”
Photo taken by Yann-Arthus Bertrand and Peter Arnold.
Her parents separated when Diane was barely six years old. Soon a stranger appeared in the house and became the girl’s stepfather. He was not rude to his stepdaughter, but he was unusually aloof and reserved. The mother, absorbed in her feelings, soon also moved away from her daughter. The girl, well-groomed and fed, seemingly lacking nothing, turned out to be absolutely alone. Most often no one noticed her presence. There were no friends among my peers either. And then she began to seek friendship with animals. But even here she was disappointed: her mother, a guardian of cleanliness, and her stepfather, a champion of silence, did not allow her to have either a dog or a cat.
Diane was a good student and secretly dreamed of becoming a veterinarian. But she soon had to give up this dream: she failed to pass the exams in chemistry and physics when entering the University of California. That is why the girl studied to be a psychologist and began working with children. Children are unusual, traumatized either physically or mentally. Soon she was already spending days and nights within the walls of a hospital in Louisville, Kentucky.
Photo taken by Alan Root
One of the girl’s fans turned out to be from Rhodesia. Diane quickly lost interest in him, but fell in love with his stories. In 1963, having literally collected little money from pennies, she went to East Africa. Here in Tanzania, Fossey met the famous anthropologist Louis Leakey and told him about her burning dream: to see mountain gorillas on the slopes of the Virunga volcanoes. Just a few days later, her dream came true. She later wrote: “They were large and imposing, but not at all ugly.”
So in 1966, Diane found herself alone on a high mountain plateau, at an altitude of three thousand meters, at the junction of the borders of Rwanda, Uganda and Zaire. There were no laws in this area; poachers ruled the roost here, selling trophies from illegal hunting. valuable species wild animals. Diane was able to do something that no one had managed before: she managed to gain the trust of the gorillas, who gradually began to let her in and consider her almost a member of the pack. To accomplish this scientific feat, the young woman needed many months and even years of amazing endurance and patience.
Over time, the animals accepted her as one of their own. She could sit with them for hours, nibbling on their favorite wild celery. For the first time in her life, Diane found friends - meek and affectionate, demanding and playful...
Very soon she realized that her pets - gorillas - were the object of an insane profit. Hand, gorilla head cost huge money on the global black market.
So four years passed. Fossey was able to obtain a grant from the National Geographic Society and establish a real research station at Karisoke.
In 1980, Fossey defended her dissertation and received a professorship at Cornell University. At the same time, she began working on the book Gorillas in the Mist, which was published in 1983 and brought her world fame(Russian edition appeared in 1990). The book helped Diane draw public attention to the plight of mountain gorillas - by the 1980s, their numbers had dropped to 250 individuals! Fossey then returned to Karisoke and continued observing and fighting poachers.
Her name appeared on the pages of special scientific journals. People began to listen to Dian Fossey’s opinion, and expeditions were sent to her “wilds.” They had their own admirers and even patrons. But Diane continued to lead the same lifestyle. She preferred to spend almost all her time among her furry friends. “Forest hermit” - that’s what the locals called her. “Crazy,” the visitors shrugged their shoulders.
Gradually the animals became her family. Fossey was ruthless towards those who caused irreparable damage to nature and posed a threat to the gorilla population. Diane pursued the “killers,” as she called the poachers: she took their guns, disabled their traps, and even, they say, flogged them with her own hands.
“One can respect the asceticism of a fragile, not very young and far from healthy woman, but everything has its limits... even love for our smaller brothers,” the Rwandan minister reasoned approximately like this.
He had treated Diane well all these years: he was partly flattered that such a prominent scientist lived and worked in his country. But the interests of the country, as well as, apparently, one’s own pocket, were above all... And the open persecution of Dian Fossey began. The result was unexpected even for him.
Early on a foggy morning, young American graduate student Wayne McGuire, who was conducting research with Diane, was awakened by loud, frightened screams from black workers at Karisoke Station. At Diane's cottage, he discovered her prone body, her head mercilessly hacked to pieces and her face mutilated. The murder weapon lay nearby - an old machete. It happened on December 26, 1985, on Christmas Day. holidays. Dian Fossey was fifty-five years old. It became known that on October 27, exactly two months before the murder, she discovered a wooden figurine on the threshold of her house African viper- symbol of death...
Suspicion initially fell on Diane's assistant, whom Fossey shot several months before her death. Shortly after being charged, he was found hanged in prison. Wayne McGuire was later implicated in Diane's murder. The Northern Rwanda provincial court even sentenced him to death in absentia and issued an international arrest warrant. However, the scientist, who was in the United States, strongly denied his guilt.
Sigourney Weaver as Dian Fossey
This accusation suited the prefect of Northern Rwanda, a man suspected of organizing illegal trade gold, diamonds, hunting trophies, including various organs of gorillas. He was also known as one of the leaders of the “death squads”, notorious for their incredible cruelty during the genocide in Rwanda. In total, this scoundrel was responsible for the death of almost one hundred thousand people. And without blinking an eye he gave the order to destroy D. Fossey, who knew too much about the state of affairs in Rwanda and the affairs of the prefect.
White workers research center There was no doubt that Fossey’s killer was a black poacher seeking revenge. “This should have happened to her,” one of the employees stated bitterly.
Sixteen years later, Belgian authorities have apparently managed to apprehend the mastermind behind the murder of Dian Fossey. At the end of July 2001, “Mr. Z,” as the former prefect was often called, was identified among the African refugees at Brussels airport...
...And Diane found her peace in a tiny animal cemetery. Now her last earthly refuge is next to the graves of gorillas, whom she buried according to all the rules and to whom she dedicated her life. The epitaph is carved on the tombstone: “No one loves you more, gorilla. Rest in peace, dear friend, forever protected in this holy land, for you are at home - where you belong.”
According to the results of a census released in early 2004, gorillas globe There are about seven hundred left. They have no other enemy except man...
Text by E. N. Oboymina and O. V. Tatkova
(California, USA). She is a doctor by training, although later, in 1974, she received a Doctor of Science degree in zoology ( Cambridge university). In 1963, during a tourist trip to Africa, she met the famous zoologist and paleontologist Louis Leakey, who later invited her to study the behavior of mountain gorillas in tropical forests Virunga massif, at the junction of the DRC ( Democratic Republic of the Congo), Rwanda and Uganda. Here she studied the behavior of mountain gorillas for 18 years. She was an outspoken advocate for nature conservation and fought poaching in the area. national park Virunga.
In 1975, she became the heroine of the film National Geographic Society "In Search of Giant Apes" (1975).
Dian Fossey lived with mountain gorillas for 18 years, and she knew for sure that the main danger to these smart and funny, strong and unpredictable animals is humans. By 1980, there were only 250 mountain gorillas left on Earth, so D. Fossey waged a constant battle against poachers. Diane studied the gorillas patiently and sensitively, constantly risking her life, she waited for years for the gorillas to accept her into the troop. In the end, she won - she was accepted. So, she lived alone among these powerful, largest monkeys in the world, studying their habits, skills and, no matter how strange it may sound, culture.
When her photograph appeared on the cover of National Geographic in January 1970, Diane became famous. She received her PhD from Cambridge University in the UK in 1980 and has been named the world's leading expert on the physiology and behavior of mountain gorillas. Fossey taught her own course at Cornell University from 1981-1983, during which time she wrote her best-selling book Gorillas in the Mist. The book is still the world's best-selling book about gorillas and was made into a film in 1988.
In 1983, her popular science book “Gorillas in the Mist” was published. Later, in 1988, partly based on this book, a film of the same name was filmed. Feature Film starring Sigourney Weaver.
Dian Fossey was hacked to death with her own cane cutter (machete) in her camp bungalow near the Karisok Research Center, Rwanda on December 26, 1985. The murder has not been solved. It is possible that Diane was killed by Africans hired by those whom Fossey was preventing from using gorillas for commercial purposes. Dian Fossey was buried next to the killed gorillas in the yard behind the bungalow. Carved on the tombstone is her Rwandan name Nuarmachabele (“The Woman Who Lives Alone in the Mountains”) and the epitaph: “No one loved gorillas more. Rest in peace, dear friend, forever protected in this holy land, your home where you belong."
Comments: 1 |
It turned out that females prefer those males who take care of their cubs or, at a minimum, are tolerant of them. Males who paid attention to cubs, whether their own or others', fathered offspring 5.6 times more often than males who did not pay attention to cubs. Even the “middle-class” ones had babies 2.9 times more often than the gorillas at the bottom of the “list.”
Stanislav Drobyshevsky
Man, like any biological creature, has gone through a long path of evolution. In principle, this path can begin to be counted from Precambrian times, literally starting from bacteria, from the RNA world. Usually, the evolutionary path of man begins to be counted either from the appearance of primates, or from the beginning of the appearance of bipedalism.
Orangutans have two morphs of males: large, with characteristic growths on the face (dominants), and smaller ones, reminiscent of females (subordinates). Typically, a given area of the forest is dominated by one large male, he is the father of most of the cubs. And several other males of both morphs occupy a subordinate position and rarely become fathers. When the patriarch ages or weakens, the place of the main male is gradually taken by another male of a dominant morph with outgrowths on his face. Such a change may be accompanied by a period of unstable hierarchy, sometimes lasting up to several years. At this time, subordinate (female-like) males also get a chance to reproduce.
An ethologist from the University of Pisa, Elisabetta Palaggi, believes that it is the ability of primates to behave frivolously that helps them exist in large groups. In her work, she studied the behavior of nineteen chimpanzees living in a common enclosure. Palaggi's group of test subjects was quite diverse. It included males and females of the most different ages. Scientists spent 344 hours in the cage observing each monkey.
Dian Fossey (January 16, 1932 - December 26, 1985) is a legend of our time. This purposeful and fearless researcher spent 18 years studying mountain gorillas in the tropical forests of Rwanda and single-handedly fighting poachers...
In 1980, there were only 250 mountain gorillas left on Earth. She, like no one else, knew the difficulties faced by these animals, for whom people have become the most dangerous enemies. Unpredictable and funny, smart and strong, gorillas revealed their incredible secrets to Diane and the whole world, which helped us understand their morals and habits.
Her parents separated when Diane was barely six years old. Soon a stranger appeared in the house and became the girl’s stepfather. The mother, absorbed in her feelings, soon also moved away from her daughter. The girl, well-groomed and fed, seemingly lacking nothing, turned out to be absolutely alone. Most often no one noticed her presence. There were no friends among my peers either. And then she began to seek friendship with animals. But even here she was disappointed: her mother, a guardian of cleanliness, and her stepfather, a champion of silence, did not allow her to have either a dog or a cat.
Diane was a good student and secretly dreamed of becoming a veterinarian. But she soon had to give up this dream: she failed to pass the exams in chemistry and physics when entering the University of California. That is why the girl studied to be a psychologist and began working with children. Children are unusual, traumatized either physically or mentally. Soon she was already spending days and nights within the walls of a hospital in Louisville, Kentucky.
One of the girl’s fans turned out to be from Rhodesia. Diane quickly lost interest in him, but fell in love with his stories. In 1963, having literally collected little money from pennies, she went to East Africa. Here in Tanzania, Fossey met the famous anthropologist Louis Leakey and told him about her burning dream: to see mountain gorillas on the slopes of the Virunga volcanoes. Just a few days later, her dream came true. She later wrote: “They were large and imposing, but not at all ugly.”
So in 1966, Diane found herself alone on a high mountain plateau, at an altitude of three thousand meters, at the junction of the borders of Rwanda, Uganda and Zaire. There were no laws in this area; poachers ruled the roost here, trading in the trophies of illegal hunting of valuable species of wild animals. Diane was able to do something that no one had managed before: she managed to gain the trust of the gorillas, who gradually began to let her in and consider her almost a member of the pack. To accomplish this scientific feat, the young woman needed many months and even years of amazing endurance and patience.
Fossey's research has proven that gorillas, although they are not the closest relatives of humans, have behavioral skills that are not related to survival, i.e. they have their own CULTURE. Dian Fossey, living alone among the largest monkeys in the world, risking her life every day, managed to refute established stereotypes and achieve what had previously seemed impossible: in 1970, an adult male nicknamed Peanuts touched her hand. She was accepted into the pack!
It was much more difficult with people. What helped Diane live so long among the natives was her... hair color. Red hair scared off enemies who considered Diane a witch and called her “a woman who lives in the forest alone, without a man.” Personal life took place in a flimsy shack, in the company of a local translator and three security guards. Only once did she pay attention to the man. But the operator National magazine Geographic Bob Campbell, alas, was married. They say that Bob was very offended that Diane never mentioned his name in her books.
First of all, she was forced to resort to direct measures to protect the gorillas, as well as other animals in the national park. Alone or with the help of her trainees and employees of the Karisoke center, she destroyed poachers' traps and saved gorillas from death. Without any official authority, Fossey carried out propaganda work among local residents, trying to awaken in them love for surrounding nature. In addition, she also carried out organizational work aimed at encouraging those people who helped her in protecting mountain gorillas. After the killing of her favorite young male Digit by poachers on December 31, 1977, she created the Digit Foundation, which supported the work of forest patrols.
In 1980, Fossey defended her dissertation and received a professorship at Cornell University. At the same time, she began working on the book “Gorillas in the Fog,” which was published in 1983 and brought her worldwide fame (the Russian edition appeared in 1990). The book helped Diane draw public attention to the plight of mountain gorillas - by the 1980s, their numbers had dropped to 250 individuals! Fossey then returned to Karisoke and continued observing and fighting poachers.
One day, after yet another atrocity by hunters, Diane burned down a settlement of poachers. In retaliation, on Christmas night, December 26, 1985, a 53-year-old woman was killed in own home. An American professor was buried next to the grave of her pet gorilla Gidget.
Sixteen years later, Belgian authorities have apparently managed to apprehend the mastermind behind the murder of Dian Fossey. At the end of July 2001, “Mr. Z,” as the former prefect was often called, was identified among the African refugees at Brussels airport...
...And Diane found her peace in a tiny animal cemetery. Now her last earthly refuge is next to the graves of gorillas, whom she buried according to all the rules and to whom she dedicated her life. The epitaph is carved on the tombstone: “No one loves you more, gorilla. Rest in peace, dear friend, forever protected in this holy land, for you are at home – where you belong.”
By 1999, there were already 650 gorillas in the world, and the Djidjit Foundation continues to operate to this day. According to the results of the census released in early 2004, there are about seven hundred gorillas left on the globe. They have no other enemy except man...
In 1988, partly based on the book Gorillas in the Mist, a feature film of the same name was made starring Sigourney Weaver.
- Taiga tea: composition, indications and storage conditions for the collection Taiga tea
- What meat is the healthiest for humans?
- Signs for the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, as well as rituals and prohibitions Annunciation customs and signs what you can do
- Mushroom picking: general rules and advice for a novice mushroom picker Dream of picking mushrooms in the forest