Gorillas in the Mist by Dian Fossey

First published: 1983

Subjects: Animals, nature, and science

Type of work: Science

Recommended Ages: 15-18

Form and Content

Gorillas in the Mist is a popular account of Dian Fossey’s research and her other experiences while studying mountain gorillas in Africa. The book, consisting of a first-person narrative and descriptive passages, is divided into twelve chapters. In some cases, a chapter follows the history of a particular gorilla group or an extended patriarchal family. This approach results in some overlapping between chapters, since some described events involve more than one group of gorillas.

Fossey went to Africa in December, 1966, as a protégé of the famous anthropologist Louis Leakey and under the sponsorship of the Wilkie Foundation and the National Geographic Society. The first chapter describes her attempts to study the gorillas from a base camp in Zaire, in the Virunga Mountains. The work was interrupted when Fossey was evacuated by soldiers during a rebellion. She reestablished contact with some of the same gorillas from a new base camp in Rwanda, in the Parc des Volcans.

Two chapters give general impressions of the terrain, ecology, wildlife, native people, and gorilla populations around the Karisoke camp in Rwanda. Six chapters follow several gorilla groups, giving descriptions of intergroup and intragroup social relationships, individual characteristics, migrations, nest making, feeding behavior, play, sexual activities, contents of feces, births and deaths, development and care of infants, vocalizations, aggression, curiosity, illnesses and injuries, changes in group composition, and the gorillas gradual acceptance of Fossey.

Fossey observed the animals for nearly three years before one of them touched her. That silverback male, named Peanuts, and another male, Digit, were among Fossey’s favorites. The gorillas eventually became so accustomed to her presence that adults would allow playful youngsters to sit on Fossey’s lap. The book dispels old stereotypes of gorillas as fierce “King Kong”-type monsters. Much of gorilla family life is described as involving tranquil periods of feeding, resting, and play. Yet, Fossey also relates how the adult males fought with one another for females and defended their groups against attacks by poachers. When a male captured a new female for its harem, it sometimes killed the female’s infants that had been sired by other males.

Two chapters describe animal and human visitors to the Karisoke Research Centre. Fossey was more accepting of the animals: Chickens, dogs, a monkey, duikers (antelope), bushbuck, buffalo, rats, and other creatures roamed freely in and around the camp. She resented visits by tourists and had difficulties with most of the students who came to work with her. Fossey did have a long relationship with National Geographic photographer Bob Campbell, and she was grateful for the help of African trackers and porters, some of whom were with her for many years.

Two chapters involve poaching and trapping and the devastation that these activities cause among gorillas and other wildlife. Fossey organized antipoaching patrols and paid African assistants to dismantle poachers’ traps and snares. Whenever possible, she rescued animals from the traps. Two sick, frightened infant gorillas were brought to Karisoke after they were captured for a zoo. In attempting to defend their babies, most members of the infants’ families (not groups in the study) had been killed. Fossey nursed them back to health but could not save the two young gorillas from their fate as short-lived zoo specimens. A third baby gorilla was released back into the wild. Several gorillas in Fossey’s study groups, including her special friend, Digit, were killed or seriously injured by poachers. Digit and a male called Uncle Bert were decapitated, and Digit’s hands were hacked off.

The main text is followed by an epilogue, which is a plea for the preservation of wildlife areas and endangered species in various parts of the world. Two years after the book was published, Fossey was murdered at Karisoke.

Critical Context

Public interest in the behavior of chimpanzees and great apes was first stimulated in the 1960’s by many articles in National Geographic and reports in other popular media. Along with Fossey, Jane Goodall, who worked with chimpanzees, and Biruté Galdikas, who studied orangutans, were pioneers in discovering and communicating to the world the endearing character of these animals. Fossey’s book was widely popular when it was first published, and interest surged again when a film loosely based on it was released in 1988. Young readers may be somewhat misled if Fossey’s book is their only source on the subject, and even more so if they only see the film version of Gorillas in the Mist.

More details of Fossey’s life are included in Woman in the Mists (1987), by Farley Mowat. The Dark Romance of Dian Fossey (1990), by Harold T. Hayes, is highly critical of Fossey, as is Sy Montgomery’s book Walking with the Great Apes (1991). Montgomery also chronicles the work of Goodall and Galdikas, who are subject to similar but much milder criticism. He and other writers go so far as to charge that Fossey was mentally ill.

Gorillas in the Mist, along with such easy-to-read books as Goodall’s Through a Window: My Thirty Years with the Chimpanzees of Gombe (1990); The Education of Koko (1981), by Francine Patterson and Eugene Linden; and Almost Human: A Journey into the World of Baboons (1987), by Shirley C. Strum, can be worthy starting points for more serious study of primates. The work that Fossey started was continued in Rwanda until it was disrupted by civil war in the early 1990’s.