Virunga: Passion Dian Fossey

On December 28 1985 after eighteen years of research in the dripping rain forests of the Virunga volcanoes in central Africa Dian Fossey was brutally murdered. Though not quite fifty-four years old she had lived a life as remarkable and rewarding as that of any woman of our time. Dian Fossey went to Africa at the urging of famed anthropologist Dr. Louis Leakey to study one of the rarest most mysterious animals on earth: the wild mountain gorilla. She found the great gentle apes threatened on all sides by zoo collectors poachers herdsmen and scientists. Slowly she came to understand the magnificent creatures on their own terms to understand and admire--even to love them. She became their greatest champion--and their greatest martyr. Virunga is the startling true account of Dian Fosseys life as told by Canadas favorite wildlife writer Farley Mowat. Based on Fosseys private correspondence journals camp records personal papers and interviews with her colleagues friends and enemies it is the story of one womans inexhaustible passion for life--and the creatures who share it with us. From the Paperback edition.