Dian Fossey

Dian Fossey (1932–1985) was an American primatologist and conservationist who studied mountain gorillas in Rwanda and campaigned against poaching.

Digit Fund: A conservation organization established in 1978 to fund protection of mountain gorillas in Rwanda. Fossey founded it to finance anti-poaching patrols and protect gorillas in the Virungas.
Karisoke Research Center: A mountain-gorilla research station founded by Dian Fossey in Rwanda's Virunga Mountains in 1967. Fossey built her long-term field study and anti-poaching work around this camp.
Participant observation: A research method in which investigators take part in a community's everyday setting while observing it. Fossey's close presence among gorilla groups resembled participant observation, though she studied animals.
Gorillas in the Mist: Dian Fossey's 1983 memoir about her life and research among mountain gorillas in Rwanda. The book brought her fieldwork and conservation campaign to a broad audience.
Louis Leakey: A Kenyan-British paleoanthropologist who promoted long-term field studies of great apes and early humans. Leakey selected Fossey for the field research that became her life's work.
Mountain gorilla: A population of eastern gorillas adapted to high-altitude forests in the Virunga Mountains and Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. These gorillas were the focus of Fossey's research and protection efforts.
Animal behavior: The study of how animals act and interact with one another and their environments. Fossey documented social relationships, communication, and behavior within gorilla groups.
Gorillas in the Mist (film): A 1988 biographical film starring Sigourney Weaver as Dian Fossey. The film turned Fossey's life into a widely seen, dramatized account.
Jane Goodall: A British primatologist known for long-term studies of wild chimpanzees in Tanzania. Goodall's chimpanzee research formed part of the great-ape fieldwork movement Leakey supported.
Gorilla habituation: The gradual process by which wild gorillas become accustomed to nearby human observers. Fossey used prolonged, careful contact to observe gorilla groups at close range.

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