Dian Fossey

Dian Fossey was known as a highly respected primatologist—a scientist who studies apes and other primates—and a fiercely devoted champion of their safety and preservation. Fossey had made powerful enemies because of her opposition to poaching, and in 1985, she was found murdered in her cabin in Rwanda. The case remains unsolved to this day, but her intense love for this endangered species helped create a legacy that survives in the work of others to this day.