Famous Names

   

Dian Fossey

 

Famous Names to Remember 

Famous researcher, Dian Fossey, went to Africa in 1966 to perform a census on the mountain gorilla. 
This was originally supposed to have been for only six months.  She was so intrigued by these amazing, intelligent and gentle creatures that she stayed there until her untimely death in 1985.  she was murdered, some believe by poachers, though it was never solved.  During her time there she changed the way the scientific world looked at gorillas, she was the first person to ever get so close to  gorilla groups and have them actually touch her and accept her as part of their circle of friendship.  It  was the first ever recorded friendly contact between gorillas and humans.  Much of what we know today is thanks to her, she educated, shocked and inspired many people with the plight of the mountain gorilla.  Making us aware of why these wonderful creatures need to be conserved.  How men kill these animals and torture them and kidnap their young for money, often these animals are smuggled to other countries. Dian wrote a world famous book titled 
`Gorillas in the mist'
, which inspired a major motion picture to be made of the same title. 
 The movie starred Sigorney Weaver from Aliens fame. The movie was made on location in Rwanda, with the help of porters and Dian Fossey's original tracker. For most of the movie real gorillas were filmed in their own environment, instead of taking the idea to a Hollywood film studio they took Hollywood to the location and filmed Sigorney Weaver actually interacting with gorillas.  Some scenes had to be filmed with the use of groundbreaking makeup artistry the first anatomically correct gorilla suits.  Most gorilla suits are a dead give-away due to the anatomical differences and the whites of the actors eyes showing through but in this movie the scenes are seamless.  Sigorney was nominated for an oscar for best dramatic actress.  Sigourney's experiance with the gorillas must have inspired her, as she is now the official spokeswoman for the Dian Fossey gorilla fund International, formerly known as the Digit fund named after one of Dian's favorite male silverbacks.  This is a informative educational and very well constructed site with alot of great info,
 please visit their site at 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International

Jane Goodall

She has written books, studied and cared for chimpanzee's doing for them what
Dian Fossey was essentially trying to do for the gorilla.  I believe she has affiliations with The Fauna Foundation in Quebec, Canada, a retirement sanctuary for            ex-laboratory animals including chimps, which few others are willing to take on.

Some say she was a young shy 26 year old woman when she first started her famous studies in Gombe, British ethologist, Jane Goodall is also an authority on wild chimpanzees. Jane was born in London and educated in Bournemouth.  
She worked in Africa for the British anthropologist Louis S. B. Leakey, at whose suggestion she set up a camping area in in the Gombe Stream Chimpanzee Reserve on Lake Tanganyika in 1960. She studied the rarely observed lives of chimpanzees for nearly ten years. She discovered behavior patterns like their ability to use straws for extracting termites from nests.

She has written several books and produced television and full movie screen documentaries. She wrote a very popular book about chimpanzees named,
In the Shadow of Man first published in 1971, this one has since been revised and is apparently a great book.  I have just purchased it and haven't had the time to read it yet as I am currently enthralled with Gorilla's in the Mist but am now wanting to finish it to read Jane's book.

She also wrote Innocent Killers published in 1971 this one on another topic, spotted hyenas, their  predatory behavior had also not been studied  previously. The Dutch wildlife photographer Hugo van Lawick (Jane's ex husband) worked with her on her books and films.

She is still very active in this field and now has a website about what she does and things you can do to help save the loveable cuddly, cute and special creatures of nature from becoming extinct.  Please take the time to help put a stop the injustice man has done and help save the chimpanzee and both theirs and our environment.  See  www.janegoodall.org  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adrian De Shriver

Unfortunately I have not been able to obtain much info on this man, if anyone has any sources that are valid please let me know.  I do however know this much.

An amateur behaviorist, a man who has dedicated his life helping to conserve areas of African forrest and national parks for the gorilla.  He did a lot of work in the eighties and was featured on a video created by National Geographic, simply titled, `Gorilla' and then another video titled `Man and the great ape' Upon viewing the latter video you begin to think it is exactly the same as the first one.  For the first 20 mins or so you are, then comes the documentary about the orangutan, this is great, one of my favorite videos they show how intelligent and how lovable they can be. 

 

Leakey, Louis S(eymour) B(azett) (1903-1972),

British palaeoanthropologist known for his discoveries of fossil remains that are considered to have greatly  advanced the study of human evolution. Ironically he  was the  son of English missionary parents.  Leakey was born in Kabete in Kenya he was raised around the Kikuyu people.  later he went on to write a study of their culture.

Lois Leakey was educated at the University of Cambridge he eventually earned a doctorate in anthropology. At the age of 20 he interrupted his education to return to Africa.  He was a member of a British Museum expedition to Tanganyika (now known as Tanzania) he was there seeking reptile fossils.

In the later years of his career, Lois Leakey became increasingly interested in primates behaviour. He was one of the people partially responsible for organizing the funding and recruitment of groundbreaking research, this included the researched mentioned earlier such as his influence in the projects by Jane Goodall when she worked with the chimpanzees in Gombe, Tanzania. He also helped  Dian Fossey who was studing mountain gorillas in Rwanda.
Birute Galdikas Brindamour, who researched orang-utans in the Sarawak region of Indonesia.

Louis Leakey wrote the books Stone Age Africa in 1936 and then  Olduvai Gorge, 1951-61 in 1965.