Word: virunga
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...takes a bumpy and circuitous route to Kibuye, on the eastern shore of Lake Kivu. The driver constantly sounds his horn or drives frighteningly close to people to scare them off the road. The landscape outside is breathtaking: lush green hills, banana plantations and in the distance, the Virunga volcanoes, home of the famous Rwandan mountain gorillas...
Fossey, 53, was found hacked to death by a machete at her isolated camp in the Virunga Mountains, where she had lived on and off since 1967. No arrests have been made, but authorities believe the killer was someone who knew her. Fossey was often at odds with the local population, especially poachers, who sell the heads, hands and feet of mountain gorillas as curios and ashtrays. The rare primates, which have not been able to survive in captivity, now number only about 240. Fossey was a vigilant protector of her research subjects; in 1980 she reportedly abducted the child...
...studies, believed that women made better primate researchers than men. His Exhibit A was Jane Goodall, whose work on chimpanzees in Tanzania has been justly celebrated. Exhibit B also achieved acclaim but, on balance, muted the generalization. In 1966 Leakey sent Dian Fossey to the Congo slope of the Virunga volcanic forest to study the habits of the mountain gorilla. Fossey convinced the eminent prehistorian of her resolve with only a few free-lance articles she had written for the Louisville Courier-Journal. Her previous job was as an occupational therapist in Kentucky...