Walking With the Great Apes

By Sy Montgomery (Published 1991)

The first time I read “Walking With the Great Apes” was on my way to Malaysia. I was fascinated with the relationships between Dian Fossey and the gorillas she studied, which was depicted in the movie “Gorillas in the Mist”. My quest was to learn about the?relationships between the women and the primates they studied. The stories are what stuck with me.

The book is a triple biography of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey and Birute Galdikas, protegees of the Anglo-African archeologist Louis Leakey. Each woman was selected by Leakey to study the primates most closely related to man Goodall, chimpanzees; Fossey, mountain gorillas; and Galdikas, orangutans. Spending years in the field, they invented a revolutionary way to conduct the science of primate ethology. They dedicated their lives to a single species and lived as close to the earth and the trees as the great apes themselves.

This time I read it, I was looking for something more, searching for the whole ? the journey from idea, to dedicating their lives to protect a single species, to relationships with both the primates and the new human cultures, to the establishment of the research centers. I came away with much more than stories.

The book is well written, and I like the way Montgomery laid it out in three sections describing distinct aspects of each of the women’s journeys: Nurturers, scientists and warriors. Each section crosses over the others, filling in gaps explaining their personalities, their lives and the changes along the way.

Though each woman identified individual apes by name and achieved a quiet acceptance of their human presence, their personalities could not be much different. Montgomery portrays Goodall as a proper Englishwoman who has maintained her English etiquette, Fossey as an agressive, dominant American who adopted African tactics against poachers and Galdikas as a kind Canadian who has gained quiet influence in Indonesia by understanding the cultural aspect of respect and power.

In the nurturers section, Montgomery identifies the individual apes that the women have named and grown to love, telling stories of first meetings, first touches, caregiving and specific personalities. She also identifies human influences throughout the lives of the women, bringing them to where they are in life.

Moving into the scientist section, she identifies the lack of respect initially given to the women, how each one approached the science of studying the primates and how their place in the scientific community changed over time. Montgomery also outlines their presence in Tanzania (Goodall), Rwanda (Fossey) and Borneo (Galdikas) was received by both government and local residents.

The warrior section describes how each woman fought for the survival of the species of study. Over the years, Goodall has used education, lectures, presentation and lobbying to make a difference for the chimpanzees, both in the wild and those used in research. Fossey, faced with the immediate threat of poachers killing her study subjects, took it upon herself to wage war against the poachers. Galdikas has used education and lectures, but one of her greatest skills is quietly working within the cultural structure of respect and power in Indonesia.

Montogmery takes the biographies one step further in her epilogue where she looks at the connection between the women and the primates through the light of human and animal connection. It is interesting to me that she draws on Native American legends, as well as others around the world, of part human part animal creatures and of the belief of gaining wisdom from animals.

I’m glad I read the book for a second time, and would recommend it to anyone who is interested in the primates and those who have studied them. Along with the stories of persistence and heartwarming tenderness, there also are stories of atrocities or sickness that are hard to read.