Today's Google Doodle celebrates the birthday of Dian Fossey, American zoologist best known for her study of gorillas.
Fossey studied gorilla groups over the period of 18 years in Africa, founding the Karisoke Research Center in Rwanda. A lot of her work consisted of preventing the killing of gorillas by poachers; after one of her favorite gorillas named Digit was killed, she founded the Digit Fund with the purpose of raising money for anti-poaching patrols.
[seealso story="2013/12/09/animated-google-doodle-honors-computer-pioneer-grace-hopper"]
Fossey was killed in her cabin in 1985; the perpetrator was never found.
Fossey's life was fictionalized in the 1988 film Gorillas in the Mist (based on Fossey's book of the same name), starring Sigourney Weaver. The movie was nominated for five Academy Awards and won two Golden Globes.
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