Gorillas in the Mist Summary

Chapter 1: Dian Fossey plans a trip for seven weeks to Africa where she will study gorillas and meet scientists Louis and Mary Leakey. Fossey goes with the Leakey’s to look at a giraffe fossil at an excavation site. She ends up falling into the ditch where the fossil was, breaking her ankle and throwing up all over the fossil. After two weeks of recovering, Fossey goes to study gorillas with Alan Root, a photographer, and his wife, Joan. After watching the gorillas, Fossey returns to her hometown, Louisville, Kentucky. Dr. Leakey then offers Fossey an opportunity to study gorillas in Africa for a long period of time, and it will be completely free for Fossey. Fossey agrees and once again begins her trip to Africa. She goes out with her tracker Sanweke to an area known to have a high population of gorillas, a camp at Kabara in the Parc des Virungas. Fossey and her tracker find three groups of gorillas near her camp. Fossey tries to identify the gorillas by recording their nose prints, which like human fingerprints, are different for each individual. As she continues to study the gorillas, Fossey realizes that her actions can impact the gorillas’ actions. "Any observer is an intruder in the domain of a wild animal and must remember that the rights of that animal supersede human interests. An observer must also keep in mind that an animal's memories of one day's contact might well be reflected in the follow day's behavior." (14). At the end of the chapter, soldiers approach Fossey and take her away because of political upheaval. Fossey, acting stupid so she gets released, gets very excited and crazy once her hen Lucy lays an egg. The soldiers release her and she goes back to Dr. Leakey. He takes her to the Rwandan side of the mountain so she can continue her research with other groups of gorillas without any distractions from the soldiers.

Chapter 2: Fossey renames her new camp “Karisoke Research Centre.” Her land rover, which she named Lily, is at the camp as well