Post by Isaac Ho the Admin on Jan 10, 2012 9:57:29 GMT -5
THE LOST FILM OF DIAN FOSSEY
*************************
Several nights ago, for want of better things to do that I happened to turn on the TV and our Vancouver's Knowledge Network, aired the one-hour documentary on the late Dr. Dian Fossey.
Dian Fossey was an American occupational therapist and with the help and encouragement of the famous American antropologist, Dr. Leaky, she soon found herself in Rwanda, the Congo forest.
Soon Dian become known as the world's foremost zoologist t in the study of Mountain Gorillas in Rwanda, where she spent a lot of time each morning to trek up the cold and extreme wet mountain vegetation to study this rare gorilla community.
It took a lot of time and much energy and effort in order to just catch a glimpse of these shy, gentle giants. The Mountain Gorillas have been mercillessly hunted for their heads, hands, feet and hair as sovenirs as well as their body parts as bush meets by the local Congo natives and poachers.
Dian Fossey assumed the role of both protector and conservationist of the rare mountain gorillas in which each family group is led by a Silver Back, huge but shy male gorilla. Should the
Silver Back in the group dies, then the whole group of females and youngsters shall eventually perished without his protection and able leadership.
Due to incessant warfare in and around Rwanda, Congo - fighting between military factions for power - the Mountain Gorillas have been and still are in great danger of gradually annihilation. And if so, it would be an irreversible loss to the world and what a great pity.
So it was Dian's job to study, record in a scientific manner her daily interreaction with the gorillas. There came a time after several years of very patient observation at close range that she was able at last to face the gorillas which turned out to be shy, camera-sensitive and initially tried to avoid all contacts with the two-legged humans!
The documentary by National Georgraphic portrayed Ms Dian Fossey careful approach to the gorillas in which a point came when she was allowed by them to touch one of the closest gorilla's hands. The gorilla in turn reached out to take Dian's pen and her small pocket diary, look at them, inhale the smell and sequentially returned them to Dian. This was then the crowning moment in the life of Dian Fossey, recorded on both still and cine cameras...the historic moment of contact between a gorilla and a human for the first time...!
The one-hour documentary also recorded the death of Digit, the male and closed gorilla friend of Dian Fossey. Digit got its name because it had a missing digit finger! As one day, Dian's Congo helpers found the dismembered carcass of Digit and the parts was brought to her for examination. She mourned deeply for Digit's untimely death at the hands of some poachers.
In 1970, Dian Fossey became an international celebrity by the publication of her time and life spent with the Mountain Gorillas of Rwanda in Congo, West Africa, in an illustrated article of the National Geographic Magazine, USA. Her study of Mountain Gorillas became as important as Jane Godall's study of chimpanzees.
(It is this writer's observation that it is too bad that there is no Nobel Prize for Nature Conservation in which Dian Fossey should deserve to become a Nobel Laureate.)
Dian's contributions to anthropology was finally acknowledged and recognized, and also sacrificing her youth alone in a ramshakled shed within the cold and isolated mountain forests of Rwanda.
Dian Fossey, as the protector of these rare species of Rwanda Mountain Gorillas, became the target of the vicious attack by poachers who killed her one night in December 24, 1985
But Dian Fossey's work has inspired the Hollywood buster later, titled: GORILLAS IN THE MIST. This became a big box office hit.
Dian Fossey also wrote a 400-page memoir of her life with her favourite Mountain Gorillas, also titled: GORILLAS IN THE MIST. This book is still available at www.amazon.com
Dian Fossey's remains are interned among the home of her Rwandan Mountain Gorillas. And may her soul rests in peace eternally now...
*************************
Several nights ago, for want of better things to do that I happened to turn on the TV and our Vancouver's Knowledge Network, aired the one-hour documentary on the late Dr. Dian Fossey.
Dian Fossey was an American occupational therapist and with the help and encouragement of the famous American antropologist, Dr. Leaky, she soon found herself in Rwanda, the Congo forest.
Soon Dian become known as the world's foremost zoologist t in the study of Mountain Gorillas in Rwanda, where she spent a lot of time each morning to trek up the cold and extreme wet mountain vegetation to study this rare gorilla community.
It took a lot of time and much energy and effort in order to just catch a glimpse of these shy, gentle giants. The Mountain Gorillas have been mercillessly hunted for their heads, hands, feet and hair as sovenirs as well as their body parts as bush meets by the local Congo natives and poachers.
Dian Fossey assumed the role of both protector and conservationist of the rare mountain gorillas in which each family group is led by a Silver Back, huge but shy male gorilla. Should the
Silver Back in the group dies, then the whole group of females and youngsters shall eventually perished without his protection and able leadership.
Due to incessant warfare in and around Rwanda, Congo - fighting between military factions for power - the Mountain Gorillas have been and still are in great danger of gradually annihilation. And if so, it would be an irreversible loss to the world and what a great pity.
So it was Dian's job to study, record in a scientific manner her daily interreaction with the gorillas. There came a time after several years of very patient observation at close range that she was able at last to face the gorillas which turned out to be shy, camera-sensitive and initially tried to avoid all contacts with the two-legged humans!
The documentary by National Georgraphic portrayed Ms Dian Fossey careful approach to the gorillas in which a point came when she was allowed by them to touch one of the closest gorilla's hands. The gorilla in turn reached out to take Dian's pen and her small pocket diary, look at them, inhale the smell and sequentially returned them to Dian. This was then the crowning moment in the life of Dian Fossey, recorded on both still and cine cameras...the historic moment of contact between a gorilla and a human for the first time...!
The one-hour documentary also recorded the death of Digit, the male and closed gorilla friend of Dian Fossey. Digit got its name because it had a missing digit finger! As one day, Dian's Congo helpers found the dismembered carcass of Digit and the parts was brought to her for examination. She mourned deeply for Digit's untimely death at the hands of some poachers.
In 1970, Dian Fossey became an international celebrity by the publication of her time and life spent with the Mountain Gorillas of Rwanda in Congo, West Africa, in an illustrated article of the National Geographic Magazine, USA. Her study of Mountain Gorillas became as important as Jane Godall's study of chimpanzees.
(It is this writer's observation that it is too bad that there is no Nobel Prize for Nature Conservation in which Dian Fossey should deserve to become a Nobel Laureate.)
Dian's contributions to anthropology was finally acknowledged and recognized, and also sacrificing her youth alone in a ramshakled shed within the cold and isolated mountain forests of Rwanda.
Dian Fossey, as the protector of these rare species of Rwanda Mountain Gorillas, became the target of the vicious attack by poachers who killed her one night in December 24, 1985
But Dian Fossey's work has inspired the Hollywood buster later, titled: GORILLAS IN THE MIST. This became a big box office hit.
Dian Fossey also wrote a 400-page memoir of her life with her favourite Mountain Gorillas, also titled: GORILLAS IN THE MIST. This book is still available at www.amazon.com
Dian Fossey's remains are interned among the home of her Rwandan Mountain Gorillas. And may her soul rests in peace eternally now...
