Dr. Dian Fossey, the world authority on the endangered mountain gorilla, combines her riveting personal adventure story with fascinating scientific reporting in this landmark book on the greatest of the great apes. Gorillas in the Mist documents one of the longest field studies of primates, as it covers fifteen years, four gorilla families and three generations in the remote rain forests of the volcanic Virunga Mountains shared by Zaire, Rwanda and Uganda. One of our closest primate relatives, gorillas form tight kinship bonds, which can sustain these close knit families for generations. These shy, gentile vegetarians (who occasionally eat grubs for protein) live in a group headed by a dominant male, called a silver-back, and roam a rugged age-old environment between 9,000 feet and 13,000 feet above sea level. Working alone from a base camp 10,000 feet above sea level, Diane Fossey struggled with acrophobia on 45-degree slopes, torrential rains, hail and fog, foot-deep mud , poachers,...