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“When you realize the value of all life, you dwell less on what is past and concentrate more on the preservation of the future.”
- Dian Fossey
“The man who kills the animals today is the man who kills the people who get in his way tomorrow”
- Dian Fossey
“When you realize the value of all life you dwell less on past and concentrate more on the conservation of the future.”
- Dian Fossey
“The more you learn about the dignity of the gorilla, the more you want to avoid people.”
- Dian Fossey

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In 1983, Dian Fossey publishes her book, Gorillas in the Mist, which becomes very popular. Dian returns to Africa one more time to try and stop tourists and poachers who are affecting the gorillas lives, but is murdered in her cabin during the night on December 27th, 1985. Her killer is never found. Dian is buried next to her favorite gorilla, Digit. In 1988, a movie is made dedicated to her book.

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Dian formed research posts, organized fundraisers, and established poacher patrols, but in 1977, Dian got sick from working to hard, so she returned to the United States. When she returned, Dian found out that Digit was killed, so, she organized a fund to protect gorillas. She used a special fund to keep patrols to watch for poachers. Lots of people are angry with her efforts.

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Dian Fossey had identified almost 100 gorillas by 1972, but many were killed by poachers. Fossey's first gorilla, ( And also her favorite one) who was Digit, was a male silverback, and the leader of his group.  He was later killed and skinned by his poachers when he was defending his group. Dian then greatly increased efforts to stop poachers, and started fundraising money to pay for patrols to watch for poachers. Dian continued to observe many of Digit's descendants. Cantsbee, was the most successful male silverback ever monitored, and he lead his group (The Pablo group) for 21 years. The oldest relative of Digit is Poppy, who is 41 years old, and monitored every day by the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International, the organization that Fossey formed when Digit was killed.

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After Fossey had graduated from the San Jose State College, she decided to travel to Africa. It took Fossey's entire life savings and a bank loan to travel to Africa. There, she met the famous Dr. Louis Leakey.
Leakey asked Fossey to help him study mountain gorillas, and there she caught her first glimpse of a mountain gorilla. When Fossey's tour was done, she returned to the united states, but in 1966, Leakey persuaded Fossey to come back to research gorillas.
There she founded the Karisoke Research Center 1970, Dian Fossey left Africa to complete a doctorate for the University of Cambridge, and also to pay off her bank loan. In 1974, Fossey received her degree in zoology, and at this time, Dr.Leakey, unfortunately, dies.

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Dian Fossey Narrates Her Life With Gorillas in This Vintage Footage | National Geographic

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Dian Fossey was not the only one who studied gorillas. There are two more zoologists, Jane Goodall and Birute Galdikas, all of them working or chosen by Dr. Louis Leaky to study. They all studied chimps, gorillas, and orangutans respectively.
Below: From left to right: Birute Galdikas, Jane Goodall, and Dian Fossey.

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After spending 14 years studying, Fossey became the world's leading authority on mountain gorillas,  and helped learn about their language, and why they were endangered. Without her, Mountain gorillas would have gone extinct.

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Dian Fossey was born on January 16th, 1932, in San Francisco, California with her parents Kitty and George Fossey.
She loved to ride horse and took horseback riding lessons. She even was on her high school's horseback riding team! Unfortunately, Dian's parents divorced when she was young, due to her father's drinking problem, so Dian lived with a stepfather most of her life.
Below: Dian as a child.

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Dian Fossey was a zoologist who helped protect and study mountain gorillas in Africa. She was one of the famous Dr. Louis Leakey colleagues. She is famous for studying the endangered Rwandan Mountain Gorilla, which was on the verge of being extinct.
Below: Dian Fossey with some of her gorilla friends.