Product Description

For thirteen years Dian Fossey lived and worked with Uncle Bert, Flossie, Beethoven, Pantsy and Digit in the remote rain forests of the volcanic Virunga Mountains in Africa, establishing an unprecedented relationship with these shy and affectionate beasts. In her base camp, 10,000 feet above sea-level, she struggled daily with rain, loneliness and the ever-constant threat of poachers who slaughtered her beloved gorillas with horrifying ferocity. African adventure, personal quest and scientific study, Gorillas in the Mist is a unique and intimate glimpse into a vanishing world and a vanishing species.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7635 in Books
• Published on: 2001-05-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Gorillas in the Mist is the story of Dian Fossey, an occupational therapist from Kentucky who, in 1963 travelled to central Africa in the quixotic hope of seeing a mountain gorilla in its natural habitat. Fossey had read everything she could about the reclusive and much-feared animal, and she returned from her trip convinced that most of the books were wrong.

During her seven-week stay in Africa, Fossey had a chance encounter with the famed primatologists Mary and Louis Leakey, who encouraged her to follow her dream of living among the mountain gorillas and learning their ways. In 1967 she did just that, setting up a camp on the slopes of the 14,000-foot Virunga Volcanoes of Rwanda and studying four gorilla families there. Although it took them some time to accept Fossey's presence among them, she was immediately impressed by their peaceful nature and by their generous, guileless behaviour--so unlike the images found in popular culture.

But, Fossey discovered, despite their peaceable way of life, the gorillas had many enemies in the form of poachers who hunted them for their hands, skins and heads--ghastly remains sold to the tourist market. Much of Fossey's thoughtful but often rightly angry memoir Gorillas in the Mist is a well-reasoned plea for the protection of the gorillas and the suppression of the poachers' black market. That argument found a wide audience when her book was published in 1983, but Fossey's work remains unfinished: she was murdered, probably by those very poachers, in 1985, and today there are fewer than 650 mountain gorillas in the wild. To read Gorillas in the Mist is a first step for anyone concerned with their preservation, and that of other wild species everywhere. --Gregory McNamee

Customer Reviews

just what i expected
now if you know about Dian fossey or have atleast heard of the woman you will like this book, it is her life and it is told in a good way.some parts might upset you, what with the poachers and photos inside of slaughtered Mountain Gorillas,but it is the truth about what happened and what is stil happening in regions of Africa. dont get me wrong,its not all about poachers, its her life and everything in it, written in a scientific yet funny and understandable way for every kind of reader so u dont get bogged down in it all! theres even a map and gorilla family trees! some truths about gorillas which i didnt know i discovered in this book and i can tell you, they are not pretty,but none the less i cudnt help smirking over the innocent free mischeivious apes! you must read it!

Gorillas in the mist
The book can speak for itself. A beautiful if sad story. We went to see the gorillas last year. Amazing creatures and the book answers so many of the questions you think of after your visit to see them. If you cant get to see them for yourself, read the book.