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Back to Subjects - Anthropology

Gorillas in the mist

Gorillas in the mist Gorillas in the Mist is one of the most emotional and inspiring books I have ever read. This autobiography is by, in my eyes, the most admired researcher ever to walk the face of this earth. There is no and was no woman more dedicated to anything than Dian Fossey. This woman stood her ground through thick and thin to protect the lives of one of the most threatened species today. Dian Fossey was a normal young lady that had the dream of taking part in the research of gorillas in Africa. She attended a conference one evening that was given by a gentleman named Dr. Louis Leaky. Dr. Leaky talked about the enormous problem of keeping the gorillas that roamed the Virunga Mountains of Africa from going extinct. He explained the problem of poachers and the problem that there were just not enough people that cared enough to count the gorillas and stop poaching. This subject caught Fossey's eye immediately. Right after the conference had ended, Fossey ran to Dr. Leaky and asked him if she could join him in the next voyage to the Congo of Africa. Dr. Leaky agreed to the request. Fossey met up with Dr. Leaky in Africa not long after the conference came up. When Fossey arrived she noticed that the streets were polluted with army members. She asked Dr. Leaky about the situation and he told her about the civil war that was taking place at that time. Fossey knew little about what she was getting into and Dr. Leaky was very vague as to what he told her. Upon arrival Dr. Leaky guided her over to a group of men that he called “Trackers”. He told Fossey to pick a man that would guide her through the mountains to the Gorilla’s home. Out of the whole group there was only one man who spoke English. His name was Sambeggar. She chose him to be her right hand man for the journey of her lifetime. Fossey and a few helpers loaded up their vehicle and took off for their destination. They drove deep into the Congo forest until they stood under the steep mountainside of the Virunga Mountains. Fossey, Sambeggar and the rest of the helpers unloaded the car and began the hours of walking necessary to reach their destination. Finally, they reached an opening in the woods where a small, worn down shack stood. They unpacked the bags of supplies and clothes and settled in. At first chance, Sambeggar and Fossey took off into the mountains in search of the gorillas. After five hours of walking, Fossey finally asked Sambeggar where he was taking them. Sambeggar told her that he was not a gorilla tracker, for he only tracked gazelle, antelope, and elephant. For six months, no gorilla had been seen by any of the men. Finally, after six months of seeing nothing, Sambeggar and Fossey found a group of gorillas nosing their ways through the thick underlay of the forest. As Fossey stares in amazement at the beautiful group of gorillas, the lead “silver back” spots them. He begins to charge at them. Fossey and Sambeggar retreat through the woods and escape the huge “silver back”. A few days passed and Fossey continued to see the gorillas. But, with the force of the civil war troops, Fossey is forced to move to the other side of the mountain range. Here, she located a different group of gorillas. She named the group, Number Four. She studied this group of gorillas for a long while, getting closer and closer to them on every visit. One day, Fossey got so close, that one of the gorillas actually came up and jumped over her. This triggered all but the huge silver back to get closer and closer to Fossey, realizing that she truly was harmless. Her basic technique was to mimic gorilla movement and instinct. The technique amazingly worked beyond belief. The first sign of poachers came one day when Fossey was taking her normal journey into the mountains and ran into numerous amounts of traps of all sorts. Fossey was furious to find the traps and destroyed every little bit of all she could find. She had nobody in mind but was anxious to find out who set the evil traps. Without notice one night, a gentleman arrived from the National Geographic magazine to write about Fossey. The next morning, this gentleman, Bob Campbell, asked Fossey if she would be kind enough to approach the giant silver back. Fossey, feeling fairly comfortable around it now, agreed to the challenge. She approached the gorilla with no problem. When she got right beside it, she lay down and laid her hand out. Amazingly, the gorilla reached out and grabbed her hand. She looked down at the hand in amazement and verified that this particular gorilla’s fourth and fifth fingers were webbed together. She gave the gorilla the name Digit. Bob returned a short time later to reveal his amazing story to the world. On another routine trip, Fossey found a separate group of gorillas being attacked by a poaching tribe called the Baqua. She witnessed the death of five adult gorillas and the kidnapping of a baby. Fossey rushed to town to find the gorilla. She found the kidnapped gorilla in horrible shape and took it with her. She immediately took the gorilla down to a nearby government office where she presented the baby gorilla to a government official. The official said that he was the one that was going to sell the gorilla for money to feed the people of his community. Fossey made a deal with him that if she got the gorilla all ready and healthy to sell, then he would have to give her three men that would be anti-poacher police of the mountains. He agreed and three men were given to Fossey. Five years later Dian Fossey was still staying strong in the wilderness of the Congo. She was even given three students to evaluate her and learn from her brilliance. Although no enormous problems with poaching occurred those five years, poaching in general was far from over. The Baqua tribe wanted to take another young gorilla to sell. They scoped out Digits group of gorillas and planned to take a baby to sell to the zoo. When the tribe tried to get to one of the babies of Digits’ family, Digit raged and defended his family. However, in doing so, Digit’s life was taken. Fossey reached the group of gorillas just after the poachers fled. She was absolutely devastated at the sight of her good friend lying dead amongst the Congo floor. She retaliated, burning down the tribe’s village and torturing two of the captured men that took place in the outburst. She broke down into psychotic moods and went crazy on people. She even told her students to leave and blamed part of the murder on them. After some time had passed, Fossey’s life became less depressing. She continued to go to see Digits’ family and encountered them in amazingly up-close visits. The gorillas survived quite well without Digit. In fact, Digits’ new child was born and it to also had webbed fingers. Just as life started to get back to normal for Fossey, she was murdered in her sleep out in the Virunga Mountains. Her death to this day is still a mystery. We can only assume that it was committed by the people that made her life so complicated, the people of the Baqua tribe. Ever since I was a young kid I always dreamed of having my own pet gorilla or chimpanzee. That dream faded as I grew older. This book brought that dream back stronger than it’s ever been. What this lady did for the future of gorillas in this part of the world is absolutely unbelievable. She gave her life for these animals. I don’t think that there is any person out there with a heart like Dian Fossey had. This book taught me so much about how gorillas interact with each other, what they eat, how they play, etc… I could go on forever. It taught me what kind of world we live in and how important it is to keep animals alive. Dian Fossey in my eyes is the most gifted woman to ever walk the face of this world in the eyes of the Animal kingdom. Bibliography: Gorillas in the Mist is one of the most emotional and inspiring books I have ever read. This autobiography is by, in my eyes, the most admired researcher ever to walk the face of this earth.

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