“I feel more comfortable with gorillas than with people”, said Dian Fossey. A study trip to Africa in1963 proved to be a turning point in her life. In Rwanda, she met Dr. Louis Leakey, who was studying fossils. She also saw gorillas for the first time, a sight that thrilled her to the core. Three years later, Leakey sent Fossey to study gorillas in the Congo. However, political violence forced her to flee to Rwanda. Here she set up the Karisoke Research Centre in the Virguna National Park. Fossey conducted path breaking research in this center. She lived alone with the gorillas for long periods, and won their trust. Fossey’s research won her name and fame. She fought the gorilla hunters and wrote a bestselling book, ‘Gorillas in the Mist’. Dian Fossey was murdered in her cabin at the research centre in December 1985. Her killers have never been identified.
