Background
Fossey was born on 16 January in 1932 in San Francisco, California, the daughter of Kathryn "Kitty" (née Kidd), a fashion model, and George E. Fossey III, an insurance agent.
anthropologist primatologist Zoologist
Fossey was born on 16 January in 1932 in San Francisco, California, the daughter of Kathryn "Kitty" (née Kidd), a fashion model, and George E. Fossey III, an insurance agent.
Dian Fossey had failed to gain a degree in veterinary medicine from the University of California at Davis and transferred to San Jose College where she gained a BA degree in physical therapy in 1954. Fossey first studied gorillas in Kabara in the Parc des Virungas, Zaire, for over six months in 1967.
She spent almost her entire remaining life studying gorillas in Karisoke, leaving only to gain her Ph.D. in 1976 from Cambridge University under the guidance of ethologist Robert A. Hinde and again in 1980 to briefly teach at Cornell University.
Significantly extending and expanding the work of George Schaller, Dian Fossey conducted long-term field studies of gorilla behavior and passionately advocated for gorilla conservation. After meeting Fossey in 1963 and again in 1966, L. S. B. Leakey began to discuss with her the possibility of studying primates in the wild. During these discussions, Leakey commented that it was risky for a person to have an appendix intact when embarking on a long field study. This comment was not meant seriously. This initial lack of scientific training did not concern Leakey, who believed women uniquely possessed the patience required for long-term field studies and that those without formal scientific training could combine this patience with a lack of bias in terms of their observation of primate behavior. Once Fossey arrived in Zaire in 1967, her courage and determination helped her survive.
Following this experience, she established the Karisoke Research Center in the Parc des Volcans, Rwanda.
She was murdered in Karisoke in 1985. Field Methods. However, by far the most significant influences on the methods adopted by Fossey were George Schaller and indigenous trackers such as Sanwekwe, Nemeye, and Rwelekana. Schaller of the University of Wisconsin had studied gorilla behavior in Parc Albert in the Virunga Volcanoes between 1959 and 1960. This was the same site, albeit later renamed, that was used by Fossey in the initial months of her study.
After a series of failed attempts to observe gorillas in other locations, Schaller selected this site due to the height and density of the vegetation which made conditions “ideal” for prolonged observation of gorilla behavior. Together with John Emlen from the University of Wisconsin, and their wives, Schaller shattered assumptions about the impossibility of making prolonged scientific observations of gorillas in the wild by successfully observing gorilla behavior for over four hundred and fifty hours. Indigenous peoples provided instruction to Schaller and Emlen concerning how to track gorillas by observing bends in blades of grass, imprints in the soil, and scat. Once able to track gorillas, they made regular observations of certain groups.
This consistent observation resulted in six groups becoming habituated, meaning their behavior was deemed essentially unaffected by the presence of the observer. Fossey identified at least some of these habituated gorilla groups as the subjects of her own field research while in Kabara in 1967.
Fossey used similar methods to Schaller in terms of tracking and observing gorillas. She also adopted Schaller’s technique of identifying individuals according to sketches of their nose prints. The sheer length of Fossey’s field study and her desire to be accepted by the gorillas that composed her study groups led to her application of mimicry to habituate the gorillas.
Fossey would mimic vocalizations, eating, and grooming behaviors as part of her habituation of gorillas and her long-term study of their behaviors.
She would, for example, make “contentment vocalizations” and also beat her chest.
Like Schaller and others, Fossey hired local people as trackers and guides.
As the length of her field study extended and her involvement in conservation developed, local people became increasingly necessary for the logistic running of the research site and patrolling of the park to deter poachers.
Despite these contributions to primate conservation, it would be the role of indigenous peoples as the hunters, rather than protectors, of gorillas that would be most highlighted by the popular articles and books written by, and about, Fossey.
Such discussion of representations of, and by, Fossey in popular culture reveals much about the interaction between science, the media, and the public.
Fossey’s research both built upon existing knowledge of gorilla behavior and extensively extended it.
While Fossey’s own research benefited from the site location and methodology of Schaller and Emlen’s collaborative field study of 1959–1960, for example, Fossey’s work also directly continued, and in some cases revised, the conclusions set forth in Schaller’s publications.
In his 1963 book, The Mountain Gorilla, Schaller presented basic and previously unknown information concerning gorillas in the wild.
Fossey’s Ph.D. dissertation, based on her work in Parc des Virungas, Zaire, and Parc des Volcans, Rwanda, discusses Schaller’s conclusions in some depth, providing answers to questions he raised concerning concepts such as immigration and emigration and particularly the ways in which females transfer between groups. Such questions could not be answered without the kind of long-term primate field study that Fossey provided.
Through close study of a number of habituated groups, Fossey identified “home groups” as those composed of individuals born into cohesive and relatively stable groups.
In contrast, “transfer groups” were formed by a female joining a silverback male and were relatively unstable.
It was apparently always the females, rather than the males, that would transfer to a different group.
As demonstrated by Fossey’s 1984 article, these prolonged observations of group interaction would contribute to the growing understanding of primate reproductive behavior, including the phenomenon of infanticide, which emerged during the 19806.
Fossey’s extensive observation of gorillas, including the observation of individual gorillas from birth, also provided the evidence needed to revise Schaller’s age/sex classification system.
Schaller had relied on captive observations, and Fossey determined that he had generally under-aged individuals.
Furthermore, she extended the potential life expectancy of gorillas in the wild to sixty years, whereas Schaller had estimated that wild gorillas would live for around thirty years, an assumption again based on captive studies.
This organization would go on to become the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, a conservation group that continued into the early 20006 to raise money and organizes efforts to protect gorillas. It is perhaps all too easy to emphasize Fossey’s contribution to primate conservation at the expense of discussion of her intellectual contributions to the science of primatology.
Mary Ann McClure has sought to characterize Fossey’s conservation and science, and that of other female primatologists such as Jane Goodall, as one in which the formation of caring relationships with the primates studied formed the core of their science.
Thus, rather than defining science on the basis of detachment and objectivity, McClure understands the form of primatology practiced by Fossey as one based on connection.
She has been the subject of articles in magazines from National Geographic to Vogue and of films on the small and large screen.
As such, both directly and indirectly, Fossey has been a significant force in shaping popular understanding of primatology.
Particularly powerful is the way in which she created a popular consciousness for the plight of wild gorillas and their need for protection.
Thus, as Fossey’s legacy is reflected upon, it is clear that she significantly contributed both to science and conservation.
Primatology benefited from her ability to endure many years of fieldwork and in turn reveal new knowledge concerning gorilla behavior, while primate conservation gained great momentum from the combination of Fossey’s bravery and ability to attract and hold the public’s attention.
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