Dian Fossey Essay -- essays research papers

Dian Fossey Dian Fossey to me was a very mysterious, somewhat helpful and kind of troublemaking person. She seemed very adventurous and fun but she was also very serious. When it came to her job she was always serious. Dian Fossey studied gorillas. To me it is amazing how seriously she took that job. She did everything she could to protect those gorillas. I think the gorillas brought her happiness but also sadness, and other emotional problems. Dian Fossey lived up on a mountain by her self for a number of years. That begins to have an effect on you as well. It was very lonely up there on the mountain. She got a nickname rom her lifestyle, she was called "Nyirmachabelli", which means the woman who lives alone on the mountain. Poor Dian Fossey became an alcoholic up on that mountain. She also smoked three packs of cigarettes a day! I think those may have been the reasons of her constant mood swings and her unrational thinking. The unrational thinking also could be linked to her murder. You will hear some examples later on in this paper. Dian did not start out working with gorillas in the mountains of Rwanda. She first had an office job at the Kosair Crippled Childrens Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky. I'm not really quite sure how Dian Fossey became interested in gorillas, but she did and thats all that really matters. The first time Dian ever saw a real mountain gorilla, was in a place called Kabara Meadow, with Joan and Alan Root. After that one special day, they were her friends from then on. Those two people i feel were important in her start with gorillas. Another person involved in her start with gorillas was a man by the name of Louis Leaky, the most eminent prehistorian of his genration. He was the man that gave Dian her start in Africa, after she convinced him of her determination. Louis Leakey believed that women were best suited emotionally and constitutionally for studying the great apes. It seems Dian was fit for the job, but not for some aspects of it. I think Dian became a little too attached to her g orillas. They became her family. The only ones she loved and cared for. She cared more about gorillas then she did Dian Fossey. Dian Fossey first arrived in Africa filled with drive and energy. She was completly unprepared for the demands of the job, but she did not give up, she kept on going strong. She first started studyin... ...fact he was grown up and now has to take his role in the family. He had to watch and protect his family from danger. One day, it happened. Digit was found dead with his body severly mangled. Dian was very angered and saddened by this and she felt she had to do more. She sent letters out to other places letting them know what was going on and when the funding stopped, she turned to her fame with gorillas to recieve money. And when she did, she started the Digit fund. A lot of money was put towards protecting the gorillas.This made the Rwandan government look bad by not contributing to the safety of their tourist attractions. After she found the poacher that killed Digit, thats when Rwanda definately wanted her out. She threatened to hang him and put his head in a noose, but she didn't. Then she brought it to the goverments attention that she wanted a death penalty for poaching. They now just saw her as crazy and wanted her to leave because they felt she is doing more damage than g ood. But on December 27, 1981, Dian Fossey was found murdered in her shack. No one knew why or who. But on her gravestone is engraved, "Nyirmachabelli", the women who lives alone on the mountain.