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Dian Fossey

by Meagan from New York

Dian Fossey was a lady who was so determined to see a gorilla called the Mountain Gorilla she even traveled all the way to Africa to see them.

Dian Fossey was born in San Francisco, California on January 16, 1932; she was also born during the Great Depression. The Great Depression was when the stock market crashed and even rich people became poor and had to beg. When Dian was little her dad grew a bad habit of drinking, and her mom wanted a divorce when she was about four years old. She usually had to switch between houses.

Dian Fossey (www.onlinekunst.de)
Dian Fossey (www.onlinekunst.de)

Dian failed out of her first college and then she went to a new college and earned a PhD in Zoology. Along her travels she met a man named Louis Leaky. He told her that she could tag along with him on his way to Africa. Louis said that she might need her appendix out, so she went and got that done, and later he said that it really wasn’t necessary.

Dian had many accomplishments like she gave so much to help make Mother Nature a safer place for animals. She and her team found over 2,000 traps and destroyed them so gorillas could be safe to live again. Dian was also called Doctor Dian Fossey, and Professor Fossey. Dian seemed like a true hero because she loved nature, and made funds for her gorilla friends who died or got murdered by poachers.

Dian had run into a problem while in Africa she had grown a severe case of tuberculosis. The doctor said the splinters from her broken rib had spread through her body so she had to get them out. Dian’s friend Louis Leaky had died of his second heart attack.

(Dian Fossey was very brave; she climbed a mountain that was about 3,000 feet high she was also determined to climb the mountain so she could see the mountain Gorillas.)A mountain gorilla is a gorilla that lives mostly in mountain caves or on top of mountains

Dian Fossey was a very excellent person who worked really hard to do what she did. I think she was a true hero. I think that many people could learn many things from her, like treating nature better and not littering. (Starting to recycle, if you don’t now, it could save a lot of trees and not wasting paper can save the rain forests.) Dian Fossey was sadly murdered on December 27th, 1985 in her own cabin. It’s been about twenty years and they still haven’t found out who it was yet.

Page created on 9/13/2007 12:00:00 AM

Last edited 9/13/2007 12:00:00 AM

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