Dian Fossey

American zoologist, gorilla researcher (1932-1985) · United States · Academics · Died at 53

Dian Fossey is read about 1,854 times a day, in 67 languages.

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She lived alone in the Rwandan mountain forests for 20 years studying gorillas up close, fought poachers with a ferocity that made enemies, and was found murdered in her cabin in 1985 - the killer never conclusively identified.

Scientists Academic Literature Biology United States Americas 20th Century

A life in dates

1985Died26 December 1985“I have no friends. The more you learn about the dignity of the gorilla, the more you want to avoid people.”In their wordsQuoted in an interview with the AP (1985)Read the whole statement

“When you realize the value of all life, you learn to dwell less on what is past and concentrate more on the preservation of the future.”In their wordsFossey's last journal entry before her murder (1985)Read the whole statement

1983“It was their individuality combined with the shyness of their behavior that remained the most captivating impression of this first encounter with the greatest of the great apes.”In their wordsFrom Gorillas in the Mist (1983)Read the whole statement

1979“It is only a matter for the President to give the order - KILL - the prisons are already overcrowded and this is the only way we are going to be able to protect the remaining gorillas.”In their wordsFrom a letter to the American ambassador in Rwanda (1979)Read the whole statement

1932Born16 January 1932

Also in Deutsch

Photos 8

Dian Fossey October 1968

Dian Fossey Redwood City Tribune 10-31-68

Dian Fossey sitting, Santa Barbara News-Press 1981-05-06 25

Dian Fossey, pomona-progress-bulletin-1968-01-25 0004

Dian Fossey, The News and Advance 1981-04-29 13

Pomona-progress-bulletin-1968-01-25 0004

Rue Boy Zelenski Diane Fossey

Santa Barbara News-Press 1981-05-06 25

In their own words 4

Dian Fossey

4 statements, newest first

I have no friends. The more you learn about the dignity of the gorilla, the more you want to avoid people.
1985, Quoted in an interview with the AP (1985), Own words
When you realize the value of all life, you learn to dwell less on what is past and concentrate more on the preservation of the future.
1985, Fossey's last journal entry before her murder (1985), Own words
It was their individuality combined with the shyness of their behavior that remained the most captivating impression of this first encounter with the greatest of the great apes.
1983, From Gorillas in the Mist (1983), Own words

Wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0

About this person

Dian Fossey arrived in Rwanda's mountain forests in 1966, sent by paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey to study gorillas in the wild as part of a trio of women he recruited to work with great apes. She built the Karisoke Research Center and spent two decades observing gorilla groups daily, documenting their behavior and intelligence in ways that shifted how the world saw them. Her work was uncompromising: she supported conservation hard, stood against poaching and tourism intrusions, and made powerful adversaries in the process. In 1983 she published Gorillas in the Mist, her account of the science and the years in the forest. On December 26, 1985, following the killing of a gorilla and mounting tensions, she was murdered in her remote cabin. Her research assistant was convicted in absentia, but no consensus exists on who killed her. The population trend she worked to reverse began to climb.

Country

United States

Academics from the United States 6

John Mearsheimer61.4

Amy Coney Barrett61.1

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