“There was one occasion when Dian accompanied local police to arrest a poacher at his home outside the park (a small thatched hut),” says Redmond. “He was not there but Dian helped the police search for where he had hidden his gun. The poacher’s wife and family refused to hand over the gun. In the heat of the moment, Dian grabbed a boy and said, ‘hand over the gun and I’ll let the boy go’. Unfortunately, the family fled leaving Dian with the child.”
Fossey took the boy to her camp at Karisoke where Redmond looked after him for a couple of days, ensuring he was well fed and treated well. Redmond says Dian was later fined for the incident. It has been used as an example of some of the more extreme methods Fossey used in her fight against poachers, but Redmond says it wasn’t something she had intended as a tactic against the poachers. “It was a foolish thing to do in a dramatic moment, but it was never repeated,” he says.
Fossey was fighting a battle that, as far as she could see, she was losing. Gorilla numbers continued to decline. Worse, her increasingly militant antics gained her many enemies.
Among the gorillas she habituated, Fossey had one favourite. His name was Digit, so called because of his crooked finger. She knew him as he was growing up and felt a special bond with him. Just like her, Digit was a bit of an outsider.
On New Year’s Eve in 1977, Digit was killed by poachers as he tried to defend his family. He was only 12 years old.
