Dian Fossey: An Influential Anthropologist And Zoologist Who Primarily Focused On The Interactions Of Humans And Gorillas

The definition of anthropology is the study of human societies and cultures and their development (Guest pg). There are many different societies and cultures all over the world to be studied and that is what an anthropologist’s job is. There are other types of societies that need to be studied too that aren’t that far from the human ancestry. Dian Fossey saw this opportunity to discover more about a community of gorillas whose ancestors aren’t that far from the ones of humans. She saw this opportunity and sized it.

Dian Fossey spent thirteen years with gorillas and developed an incredible bond with them. The numerous gorilla from the different groups that Dian studied will always be her family. She had stronger connections with them than she did with some humans. Dian is the one of the first people to come into contact with gorillas and not be harmed. She also had established an anti-poacher project in the locations she was studying. She cared deeply for all animals and lost many of her favorites to poachers. From her discovery opportunities were opened up to the world. She also published a book with her discoveries called Gorillas in the Mist. It is a critically acclaimed book, and is known worldwide telling the specific stories about her accounts with the gorillas. Dian Fossey was a trailblazer in anthropology and in zoology.

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Dian Fossey is an anthropologist and a zoologist who primarily focused on the interactions of humans and gorillas. Dian was born on January 16, 1932 in San Francisco, California (“Dian Fossey Biography 2018). Her mother was a model in San Francisco. Her mother and father divorced when Fossey was very young. Dian grew up in Menlo, California with her mother and her stepfather. Dian’s stepfather was a wealthy contractor. Dian was an only child, which made her develop characteristics that made her stand out from her peers and classmates. There is a sense of independence that comes with being an only child, and Dian did have that characteristic. She never felt the need to have any help from her peers or parents. Dian was also very individualistic at an early age. Since Dian was so independent at a young age, she was very intelligent. She developed a strong love for animals, especially horses. In high school, Dian was on the equestrian team. Her love for animals grew as she got older (“Dian Fossey Biography 2018).

Dian was faced with a choice of what she wanted to do. She knew that she wanted to start her career with animals. So she went to the University of California, Davis as a pre-veterinary major. Then after not being happy with career path, she transferred to San Jose State College. Her she studied Occupational Therapy. Dian graduated in 1954 and began working at a local hospital as an intern. Later in her career as an occupational therapist, she was asked to be the director at Kosair Crippled Children's Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky in 1955 (“An Example of Occupational Coherence: The Story of Dian Fossey, Occupational Therapist and Primatologist.” 2007).

This is where she spent most of her time and at her farm in Louisville. Dian cared for her livestock on her farm which fueled her love for animals even more. Soon after, Dian began to grow bored of her job and life. There was no excitement for her, she needed more. This is what sparked her first journey to Africa in 1963 (“An Example of Occupational Coherence: The Story of Dian Fossey, Occupational Therapist and Primatologist.” 2007). This is also where her book starts.

In 1963, Dian took out a bank loan to travel to Africa. With no experience or equipment, she began planning her journey. During this time, she hired a driver that would take her to Mt. Mikeno in the Congo. The September of 1963 is when her journey began. It was a long and expensive trip. After arriving in Africa, Dian met her friend Dr. Leakey, an anthropologist, at one of his excavation sites. Dian went to look at the fossil of a giraffe that had been excavated and she fell in. Breaking her ankle, but despite breaking her ankle it did not break her spirits. This is where her individualistic characteristic comes out. Everyone was telling her to reschedule the trip so she could heal, but she wasn’t leaving without seeing a gorilla (Fossey 1-3).

Two weeks later and a walking stick in hand, Dian, her driver, and porters Dian hired climbed to the Kabara Meadow adjacent to the summit of Mt. Mikeno. The climb was strenuous and difficult especially for Fossey with her barely healed ankle. But the moment she was waiting for was soon to come. The first encounter Dian had with gorillas was not planned. Most of these things aren’t. Fossey and her team rounded the edge of the meadow and saw the gorillas sitting there. The females gorillas with their infants hurried away because they were startled by all the commotion of Fossey and her team. The younger males and the silverback gorillas stayed back to investigate the humans.

The gorillas were trying to figure out who the team was, were they good guys or bad? Dian and her team sat behind the brush of the meadow, watching the males beating their chest to show dominance and try to intimidate the invaders. The gorillas were used to humans being around but they usually don’t get too close to the gorillas. This was the first time Dian had come in contact with these wild animals. This experience lit a match to the fire of her desire for investigating these creatures. She knew from the first moment she saw the gorillas that she had to come back. And she came back and stayed for thirteen years (Fossey 2-4).

Dian’s first trip back to Africa was with the doctor she had met in Africa last time, Dr. Leakey. She had quit her job as an occupational therapist in order to go to Africa and make gorillas a full time job. Dr. Leakey even advised her to get her appendix removed. Since, Dian had been so eager for the next exploration, she immediately had the surgery. But then after the surgery, Dr. Leakey joked and said that the appendectomy wasn’t really necessary for their trip. This is when Fossey learned Dr. Leakey’s humor and personality (Fossey 3-4).

The main focus of Dian’s book were the groups in the Mountains of Virunga. Dian studied several groups of gorillas in this region. Fossey developed such a strong bond with these animals. They were her family and she loved them as if they were. All of the groups were named by Fossey and her team. This made the gorillas seem even more human like in the book. Fossey’s favorite thing to observe were the relationships between the silverbacks and the other members of their group. She observed the way the silverback alpha males would mate and interact with the older females. The silverback alpha gorillas, like Beethoven from group 5 and Uncle Bert from group 4, had many mates (Fossey xix-xx).

By having many mates this ensures that the group will continue on. When the baby gorillas were born the more protective the alphas became over the group. This would mean that Dian would have to maintain a further distance than normal. Dian observed “when I learned that imitation of some of their ordinary activities such as scratching and feeding or copying their contentment vocalizations tended to put the animals at ease more rapidly” (Fossey 11). This built up the trust of all the gorillas (Fossey 8-11).

The gorillas that had a special place in Fossey’s heart were who she dedicated her book to, Digit, Uncle Bert, Macho, and Kweli. These gorillas obviously were special, mainly because they made huge differences in her study. The interactions with these gorillas would further put Fossey on the map. So these were the main study subjects that Dian focused on.

Digit was a gorilla in group 4. Dian and him met when he was only a couple of years old after his mother died. Digit was like no other gorilla that Dian had observed. The reason why Dian named Digit was because he had a twisted middle finger (Fossey 167). Digit was used in National Geographic pictures to promote the study and to show the world that gorillas need to be conserved too. His picture was also used as Rwandan stamps to publicize the tourism in Rwanda (Fossey 183). This is when the study became more famous. There were pictures of Dian and Digit playing in the tall grass of the Congo that sparked more publicity because this was one of the first interactions between a human and gorilla photographed. It was revolutionary and brought in many more people to work for the study (Fossey 207-208).

Digit was never afraid of Dian or her team members, he was always the first to approach them when the team arrived for their daily observations (Fossey 182). Dian often felt the connection between them was making her scientific detachment deteriorate. “Digit became fascinated by thermoses, notebooks, gloves, and camera equipment” Dian stated (Fossey 182). Digit was always intrigued by human objects. Fossey had brought a mirror to where the gorillas were feeding and Digit came up and examined the alien object in front of him. He recognized that there was another gorilla there and he was stunned. The he began to make pig grunting noises, but he couldn’t smell the other gorilla he couldn’t understand that there wasn’t one there. Maybe he recognized himself. Dian never really new.

Digit was sadly killed by poachers later in the study. It showed that he was protecting his family and the rest of the group. Dian was beside herself when she heard the news. They buried Digit’s body by the tents the team had built. Due to the poaching, Dian started the Digit Fund that is still ongoing today.

Uncle Bert took the new position of silverback and leader after Whinny died, the original silverback of group 4. He was young to be the leader of the group. Uncle Bert had a trial period for awhile trying to adjust to the new circumstances. It took him some time before he was confident and became the true leader of the group. It wasn’t until a infant lost their mother that he stepped up and took over as the roll of caregiver. He was very protective of Simba and would constantly groom him and make night nests for him. Digit had become Uncle Bert’s right hand man as he grew older. The more Digit grew older, the more responsibilities Uncle Bert would give him. The more experience Uncle Bert obtained the more the group worked well (Fossey 181-185). Uncle Bert mated with Macho. They had Kweli (Fossey 187-190).

Dian was mainly fascinated with group 4. She loved to observe them because they had such a strong family structure. They also were the ones who interacted with Fossey and her team a lot. The team got a lot of useful information to use for the study from this group. Dian loved all the gorillas the same and made a huge impact with conservation of gorillas. From this book the readers are able to feel the connection with the gorillas similar to the ones Fossey had. This is her major work that made her name. Sadly Dian was murdered. She was found in her cabin in the Virunga Mountains on December 28, 1985. She was slain by a machete that she took from a poacher. There are rumors that poachers killed her because of all the work she did to try and prevent the poachings, but her case was never solved. She is now buried next to Digit and other gorillas killed by poachers ( “Why Was Dian Fossey Killed?” 2014).

The way that Dian Fossey’s work has affected me is the way in which she worked. I can see a lot of myself in her. Her work ethic and interest with animals is a very similar thing that we have with each other. Also with her upbringing, she was an only child like me, so I know the independence that Fossey that was discussed about in previous paragraphs. There are many similarities in our lives that drew me into writing this paper about her.

The work that Dian Fossey had procured is very inspirational. The simple interactions with each gorilla that pushes them closer to have a relationship must have been very hard due to the fact that some gorillas did not want any part of Fossey and her team at first.

The simplistic way that Dian Fossey writes in Gorillas in the Mist is very influential. The caring manner in which she writes about all the different animals is beautiful. Her writing makes you feel you are right alongside her observing the gorillas. The reader can really pick up on how much she cares about the animals. This has inspired me to do more research about what I can do to help stop poaching. The tragedies that happened while Dian was there are unimaginable to think about. Fossey’s writing has definitely inspired me to think about doing more for the sake of animals.

One of the protocols that Dian powerfully enforced during her time with the gorillas was anti-poaching patrols. This was one of her major focuses on top of studying the gorillas. This incentive is something that I look forward to further study and hopefully helping with in the future. The animals were killed in brutal ways and their parts are sold to tourists for a quick buck. Dian’s favorite gorilla, Digit, was brutally killed by poachers (Fossey 206).

This case study had huge ramifications and affected the world. Digit’s picture was used in National Geographic magazines and on stamps for Rwanda, which made him a public figure and a household name. So when the news broke that he was killed by poachers, Dian started a Digit Fund (Fossey 207). The money donated for this cause was used to support conservation of gorillas and expand the anti-poacher patrol that was already set up. An example of the anti-poacher patrol two infant gorillas, Puck and Coco, were given to Dian so she would nurse them back to health after poachers captured them. She nursed these two gorillas back to health for many months but then government officials were asking her for the gorillas back. Pucker and Coco were to be sent to a Zoo in Germany.

Dian had nursed them back from the brink of death and then they were still sent to a Zoo. After a couple of months both gorillas died in captivity. I believe that these animals are meant to be in the wild and not in captivity. After Digit’s death there were extensive searches to arrest the poachers. In the end, the ones who had killed Digit and his accomplices were arrested and sentenced. I believe with this study Dian Fossey really brought a new light to conservation of animals, especially gorillas. Many other times when gorillas encountered humans there were bad consequences, Dian even gives a couple examples in her book about inexperienced research assistants being attacked by the gorillas. This study showed that these animals were not malicious.

Dian primarily would wait on the outskirts of the resting areas of the gorillas. She would make her presence known sometimes, but when one group was interacting with another she would wait to see what happened. She would use her binoculars most of the time if she couldn’t get close and she took notes too. Sometimes Pablo, group 5, would steal Dian’s notebook and tear out the pages and crumble them up. He didn’t know what he was doing but it was still an interaction with the gorillas. There were many interactions with them once they saw that Dian was there to observe and not hurt them. Many times the gorillas would be frightened off because they would think that Dian and her team were poachers.

Dian is still a very influential person. Her study in the Virunga mountains was something that is very important to history. Fossey showed that gorillas are very similar in the way that the family life is established, it is very different in some aspects. The way that the animals and Fossey interacted is something that is very and many people who have gone down the same career path have followed her methods. She loved her work so much that she lost her life to it. All her actions towards stopping poachers have been successful but poaching has not stopped completely. When it does Dian will surely be very happy. Dian Fossey is a very influential anthropologist and zoologist who set the standards high for the later generations to come.

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