Fossey's first African safari, in 1963, was motivated by a dream -
to see the mountain gorillas of the Virunga Volcanoes and to meet
Dr. Louis Leakey at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania. She disgraced
herself with the Leakeys by tripping and then vomiting (from the
pain of a broken ankle) on their precious fossils; and on her first
venture into the bush, she was dependent on rudimentary tracking
lessons from her African assistant, and on the presence and
elementary camping advice of an English photographer. Nevertheless
she was "chosen" by Dr. Leakey to carry out a long-term field study
of the mountain gorilla, and well repaid his faith during her 13
years of observation and conservation activism. Here, Fossey tells
the interrelated story of the five gorilla groups with whom she
established rapport and the poachers with whom she did perpetual
battle, demolishing their traps and pursuing them to justice
whenever she could. After becoming especially well acquainted with
the gorillas she designated Group 4, observing their affectionate
interplay and getting to know their individual natures, it is
shocking to confront the death and mutilation of their engaging
sentry Digit and, later, the similar fates of silverback (dominant
male) Uncle Bert and mother Macho, all of whom died in an attempt
to protect the infant Kweli from capture. (Kweli, shot in the head,
died later.) Fossey traced these murders, which effected the
breakup of Group 4, to the Rwandese Park Conservator, who used his
post to acquire gorillas for a European zoo. As ten or more
gorillas are captured for every one acquired for a zoo, as three
times as many are taken as are born in captivity, and as more die
than are born in captivity, Fossey has no use for the
captivity-to-conserve-the-species argument. Her defense of her
beloved gorillas is far from sentimental, and along with the
dignity of the silverback leaders, the "impish" charm of the young,
and the impressive kinship bonds and group cohesiveness, she
reports instances of infanticide, abuse of the weak, and evidence
of cannibalism - along with such un-fastidious behavior as dung
eating, a common habit with probable nutritional benefits. In
addition to the tragic Group 4, she reports on a thriving Group 5,
two other Groups which disintegrated upon the natural deaths of
their silverbacks, and, in a final chapter with "hope" in the
title, the formation of a new group around a lone silverback
stranger who appeared after the decimation of Group 4 and acquired
its surviving members (along with other strays, steals, and
survivors). Despite this heartening example, Fossey's closing
figures of human population growth seem to offer little hope for
the gorilla population, which had been cut in half in the few years
between George Schaller's landmark study and her own. But, as she
says early on, "I am grateful that I knew this region even as late
as 1967, for it will never be the same." Whatever the mountain
gorillas' future, their immediate past is here in Fossey's vibrant
and invaluable study. (Kirkus Reviews)
Dian Fossey's classic account of four gorilla families - one of the
most important books ever written about our connection to the
natural world For thirteen years Dian Fossey lived and worked with
Uncle Bert, Flossie, Beethoven, Pantsy and Digit in the remote rain
forests of the volcanic Virunga Mountains in Africa, establishing
an unprecedented relationship with these shy and affectionate
beasts. In her base camp, 10,000 feet above sea-level, she
struggled daily with rain, loneliness and the ever-constant threat
of poachers who slaughtered her beloved gorillas with horrifying
ferocity. African adventure, personal quest and scientific study,
GORILLAS IN THE MIST is a unique and intimate glimpse into a
vanishing world and a vanishing species.
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