Thirty years ago, on December 26, 1985, Dr. Dian Fossey was brutally murdered in her cabin at the Karaoke Research Center in the Virunga mountains of Rwanda. Her death remains an unsolved mystery.
When Dr. Fossey arrived in the Virungas, the mountain gorilla population was being decimated by habitat loss and poaching. There were an estimated 250 mountain gorillas in the 1970s. Today the population is near 480 in the Virungas and about 880 worldwide.
Dian Fossey's work involved intensive research on the mountain gorilla, much of it gleaned from hours of observation under difficult circumstances. She pioneered conservation efforts through the hiring of Rwandan staff to habituate, track, and monitor gorilla groups and to deter poaching through the destruction of snares. At the present time all but but two of the 120 staff continuing her work in Rwanda are Rwandans.
It took perseverance and courage to continue her work in the face of great adversity and that effort ultimately cost her life.
It took perseverance and courage to continue her work in the face of great adversity and that effort ultimately cost her life.
Her legacy continues through the work of The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International. The fund has expanded its work to save Grauer's gorillas in Democratic Republic of Congo; mining, logging, and hunting threaten the survival of this species of gorilla. Increased tracking and anti-poaching staff of the DFGI work in combined patrols with Rwandan, Ugandan, and Congolese park authorities to save the mountain gorillas.
www.gorillafund.org
www.gorillafund.org
The final entry in Dian Fossey's journal is carefully printed in block letters
WHEN YOU REALIZE THE VALUE OF ALL LIFE, YOU DWELL LESS ON WHAT IS PAST AND CONCENTRATE MORE ON THE PRESERVATION OF THE FUTURE.
