Gaining the Trust of the Gorillas | Dian Fossey: Secrets in the Mist

KELLY STEWART: Dian Fossey was definitely a pioneer. I do not think that word has been overused. Before that, nobody had done a long-term study of gorillas. Nobody had studied them month after month and year after year.

IAN REDMOND: She wanted to be the scientist who began the first long-term field study of gorilla behavior in their society, and to take that as far as it would go.

NARRATOR: (READING FOSSEY'S JOURNAL) I've been following one guerrilla group round all month, and I'm now able to get within 30 to 60 feet of them. To be perfectly frank, I think they're quite confused as to my species.

IAN REDMOND: In order to study them and learn about the behavior, Dian had to get them used to her. And that process is called habituation, winning the trust. The habituation process is not nice, because you're upsetting this family of gorillas day after day after day. Dian's methods played on the gorillas' curiosity. So she would behave in ways that would elicit a curious rather than anger response. Like when she was climbing a tree to get a better look, she would deliberately ham it up. And she found that that got their attention.

NARRATOR: (READING FOSSEY'S JOURNAL) I've gotten them accustomed to me by aping them, and they are fascinated by my facial grimaces and other actions that I wouldn't be caught dead doing in front of anyone. I feel like a complete fool, but this technique seems to be working.