[RwandaLibre] Dian Fossey: The woman in the mist

Dian Fossey: The woman in the mist

Remembering the extraordinary life and tragic death of the renowned
gorilla watcher

By Sarah Eberspacher and Lauren Hansen | 11:38am ET

1982: Dian Fossey sits with a group of mountain gorillas in Rwanda. |
(AP Photo/National Geographic Society)

The Rwandans called her Nyiramachabelli — "the woman who lives alone
on the mountain."

Indeed, zoologist Dian Fossey, who would have turned 82 today,
conducted her research without other humans nearby. But she was never
truly alone. Starting in 1966, Fossey took up residence with mountain
gorillas. They became her life's work.

A native of San Francisco, Fossey began her professional life as an
occupational therapist, but a 1963 trip to Africa and a meeting with
anthropologist Louis Leakey changed everything. Fossey subsequently
spent the next two decades studying primates, first in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, and later in Rwanda. She is credited with
scoring the first recorded instance of peaceful gorilla-to-human
contact; a male gorilla named Peanuts touched her hand.

Fossey's favorite animal, a young male gorilla named Digit, was
beheaded by poachers in 1977, spurring Fossey to double down on her
research efforts and make even more vocal calls to the international
community to help save the primates from hunters. She published an
autobiography, Gorillas in the Mist, in 1983, which was later turned
into a successful movie starring Sigourney Weaver.

Fossey never saw the film. She was found dead on Dec. 26, 1985, alone
in her cabin, hacked to death by machetes. Her murder was never
solved, though authorities believe Fossey's assailants were likely the
same poachers she had rallied against.

1972: Dian Fossey watches a 400-pound gorilla in the Rwanda jungle. |
(AP Photo/National Geographic Society)

November 1, 1985: Fossey and her team. | (Yann Arthus-Bertrand/Corbis)
http://media.theweek.com/img/generic/Fossey3.jpg


Jan. 3, 1986: Fossey's coffin is lowered into the ground by friends
and co-workers in Mount Visoke, Rwanda. | (AP Photo/Brenton Kelly
http://media.theweek.com/img/generic/Fossey4.jpg

http://theweek.com/article/index/255198/dian-fossey-the-woman-in-the-mist


--
SIBOMANA Jean Bosco
Google+: https://plus.google.com/110493390983174363421/posts
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http://www.youtube.com/user/sibomanaxyz999
***Transmission Time Interval (TTI) on Thursday January 16th, 2014:
TTI=16H08-20H30, heure de Montréal.***Fuseau horaire domestique: heure
normale de la côte Est des Etats-Unis et Canada (GMT-05:00)***


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