There are fewer than 650 Mountain Gorillas left in the wild, and not a single one in zoos anywhere, even in the U.S.
It’s difficult to transport mountain gorillas from their remote homes in central Africa. More significant, though, is that they don’t survive well outside their native habitat.
Unlike their common lowland cousins, and despite multiple attempts, no mountain gorilla has survived captivity for more than a few years.
Dian Fossey was born on January 16, 1932 in San Francisco, California, and was an American zoologist who did an extensive study of gorillas for 18 years in the Virunga Mountains and forests of Rwanda.
She was murdered in 1985, and the case remains unsolved.
Fossey was one of the three most prominent researchers of Gorillas in her time.
