Revolutionary zoologist Dian Fossey would have been 82-years-old this week had she not been murdered in her Rwanda cabin in 1985. Her life sparked a massive overhaul of how humanity views the other inhabitants on the planet and changed perceptions of the wild forever.
Her memory was a call to action by many on social media websites, with many animal lovers praising the woman who helped make "animal rights cool again."
For a decade and a half, Fossey studied mountain gorillas in the jungle region of the Virunga Volcanoes, a region that incorporates parts of Rwanda, Uganda and Congo. In the scientific community, she is credited with helping to change the public images of gorillas, made popular with such horror films as "King Kong."
Tara Stoinski, chief scientific officer at The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International, told the Christian Science Monitor that without Fossey, nobody would have known that gorillas share much in common with humans, including families.
"The mother gorilla shares a strong relationship with the offspring, and they mourn like us," said Dr. Stoinski.
Fossey, long a symbol of the budding animal rights and environmental movements, has become a mainstay in the scientific community and a figurehead for those studying animals in their native habitats.
Until Fossey's work, little to nothing was known in the scientific world about the mountain gorillas in East Africa, who live between 7,000 and 14,000 feet above sea level. Visitors had only been able to manage mere glimpses of the majestic creatures, said Ian Redmond, primatologist and chairman of the international conservation group Ape Alliance.
"But [Fossey] was successful in winning the trust of the gorillas; not just as an observer but an honorary member of the family," says Dr. Redmond, who also worked with Fossey.
Without her research, the study of animals may not have been able to progress as far as it has come today.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
