Walking with the Great Apes: Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, Biruté Galdikas

by Sy Montgomery, Elizabeth Marshall Thomas (Foreword)

2017 is the 50th anniversary of The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund and Karisoke Research Center in Rwanda.

Three astounding women scientists have in recent years penetrated the jungles of Africa and Borneo to observe, nurture, and defend humanity's closest cousins. Jane Goodall has worked with the chimpanzees of Gombe for nearly 50 years; Diane Fossey died in 1985 defending the mountain gorillas of Rwanda; and Biruté Galdikas lives in intimate proximity to the orangutans of Borneo. All three began their work as protégées of the great Anglo-African archeologist Louis Leakey, and each spent years in the field, allowing the apes to become their familiars--and ultimately waging battles to save them from extinction in the wild.

Their combined accomplishments have been mind-blowing, as Goodall, Fossey, and Galdikas forever changed how we think of our closest evolutionary relatives, of ourselves, and of how to conduct good science. From the personal to the primate, Sy Montgomery--acclaimed author of The Soul of an Octopus and The Good Good Pig--explores the science, wisdom, and living experience of three of the greatest scientists of the twentieth century.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Animals, Nature, Biography, Africa, Environment

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Part Indiana Jones, part Emily Dickinson, as the Boston Globe describes her, Sy Montgomery is an author, naturalist, documentary scriptwriter, and radio commentator who has traveled to some of the worlds most remote wildernesses for her work. She has worked in a pit crawling with 18,000 snakes in Manitoba, been hunted by a tiger in India, swum with pink dolphins in the Amazon, and been undressed by an orangutan in Borneo. She is the author of 13 award-winning books, including her national best-selling memoir, The Good Good Pig. Montgomery lives in Hancock, New Hampshire.

Reviews

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK, what is it about these women and apes? Why would they be intent on devoting decades of their lives in the field, under the most improbable circumstances (Leakey's choice!) and the roughest, most uncomfortable conditions?

The premise of this book is to give an overview of the careers of the three leading women primatologists, but it is mostly an attempt to interpret and understand the way these women approach their work (mission would not be an exaggeration) and the motivation that fuels it. Not exactly a triple bio, but more of a synthetic assessment of their similarities and differences, coupled with insights and observations from the author, no stranger to the field herself.

I enjoyed this on several levels. First of all, it satisfied some of my curiosity. Like the rest of the population on the planet, I remember some incredible National Geographic shots of Goodall and Fossey in action (and interaction) with their respective primates, although I had not heard of Galdikas before seeing a documentary on her work recently. So, my initial question (why women and apes?) was answered: Dr. Leakey was at the origin of their assignments. The fact that he purposely chose women, especially women not necessarily trained in accepted field methods (at least at the beginning of their posts) is further examined and developed by the author in terms of what their unique and unconventional perspective brought to their research.

Sy Montgomery writes well and the book offers plenty of alert and insightful moments. It would be denying reality to pretend that such intense dedication to field study precludes less scientific and more personal motivations. With this in mind, she delves into our collective fascination with the animal world and our link with it, including examples from world mythologies of shape-shifting and totems, animal spirits and shamanism. Why not, it's universal, valid and interesting. But she goes too far when she writes of a séance conducted by a friend of hers who is a medium- a sort of modern-day shamanto try and contact the spirit of the dead Dian Fossey. Fortunately, this bit was in the epilogue or I probably would have stopped reading the book, but it does tarnish the whole and discredits the author to a degree, at least to my eyes.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book in a book sale, and I thought I'd like to read about the three "ape ladies" all in one book. The three are Jane Goodall, who studied chimps, Dian Fossey, gorillas, and Birute Galdikas, orangutans. Reading the book, I realized I knew a lot about Jane Goodall and her work. I have seen her speak twice. As this book was published in 1991, the book ends as Jane is just beginning her work to save the wild chimps and help all those held captive in labs, etc. I also knew a lot about Fossey, but it was mainly from the film starring Sigourny Weaver. As everyone knows, she was killed while defending the gorillas. Sy Montgomery points out that a sort of madness overcame the woman. The whole situation was going to end badly. Today, the best hope for the remaining gorillas is that the local people see value in the gorillas for attracting tourism. It looks like this is happening...The person I knew almost nothing about was Birute Galdikas, a Canadian descended from Lithuanians. Interestingly, she was able to assimilate herself into Indonesian society, especially through her marriage to a local Indonesian man. The book is useful as it summarizes the women's lives at least up to 1990, for Jane and Birute. All three have been magnificent members of the human species who have expanded our understanding of our closest relatives in the animal world--the great apes.

[Guillaume Belanger · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. It is a brief, triple-biography of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Birute Galdikas, Louis Leakey's three protegees, his three "Primates", as he called them, in reference to the ecclesiastical title. The portrait that is painted of these amazing women is wonderful. They were all three truly unique in character, in resolve, in depth of determination, and in their qualities as the primatologists---the first women primatologists. They redefined the field entirely. They redefined our understanding of apes, our understanding of animals, and, consequently, of what it is to be human. The writing is nice, even if a little immature. The descriptions are fresh, and the language that is used avoids cliches, which I appreciate very much, because I cannot stand any of the traditional cliches that are so commonly used by non-fiction writers.

There is a great deal of emphasis throughout the book on the major difference between a man and a woman, between men and women, at a fundamental level. I don't remember seeing this in the books I have read. Maybe this is because the book was written long enough ago that political correctness in making references to the differences between the characters and tendencies, the inclinations and sensitivities, of men and women had not yet done its work in expunging them from most people's writings. But maybe it is because the author, a woman herself, wanted to emphasize how those essential differences were at the heart of these three women's successes, and that therefore none of what they had achieved could have been by a men. I was delighted by this, because such differences must be appreciated and their value underlined, instead of being ignored or dismissed as is often the case today. Louis Leaky, a very intuitive man, knew this, or maybe he just felt it. This is why he wanted women for this work. And, as is clear today, he was proven right in this intuition about the importance of choosing women.

Reading this book, has made me want to read everything that these three woman---Goodall, Fossey, and Galdikas---have written about our closest cousins in the animal kingdom, the chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans. And has also made me want to do everything I can to help save them from extinction, which is inevitable if nothing notable and serious is done to prevent this from happening. This surely means that the author was successful.

[RYD · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really good biography of three of the world's best known primatologists, and how their approaches to their science allowed them to see things that their male counterparts did not.

I've always felt that the most inspiring people are those that succeed in what they love. In that sense, Jane Goodall and Birute Galdikas are uplifting individuals, though Dian Fossey, not so much.

Given descriptions like what follows, it is hard not to be interested in primates or impressed with Goodall, Galdikas and Fossey's commitment and sacrifice:

"Few wild orphans are as pathetically vulnerable as a baby orangutan. In the wild an infant clings constantly to its mother's coarse fur for most of its first two years. It nurses until the age eight. You cannot put an orangutan baby down as you would a human infant. A healthy infant orangutan hands on so tight with its four-fisted grip that it leaves bruises on your flesh; any attempt to dislodge the infant from your body, even for a moment, brings high-pitched, pathetic screams until it begins to choke on its own terror.

"Birute's first infant was not her own [son] Binti, it was Sugito. The year-old male orangutan arrived only days after she and Rod had set up camp. Sugito had been taken from his mother in the wild and had lived in a tiny wooden crate until he was found and confiscated by Indonesian government officials. Determined to mother him as a female orangutan would care for her baby, Birute slept, ate, and bathed with the wide-eyed infant clinging to her side, legs, arms, or head. Only three times in the first year did so force him off her body."

[Mary]

Excellent on-site studies of the three prominent primate specialists who have spent their lives with orangutans, chimpanzees, and gorillas. The women's lives are very different, and their approach to the study also different, but all were dedicated. The author presents sympathetic but realistic pictures of the three women, their personalities, and their failures and successes--and also presents hte personalities of the apes.

[Chelsea Southworth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good information, but a lot of unnecessary gender norm-based language (if that's the right way to say it; Montgomery very much bought into and upheld gender stereotypes) as well as huge misunderstandings of science (ie narrative descriptions = good, standardization/checkboxes/anything with a slightly rigorous methodology = EVIL). Not nearly as good the second time around, sadly.

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved that the book addresses the emotional and spiritual side of science, very interesting. Montgomery was the perfect person to write the book: open minded, calm, and thoughtful.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book, I wasn’t supposed to ever read it, but I decided to do so one night. It was amazing, I learned so many things about Birute and Dian that I did not know, and about Leakey’s genius and visionary mind. I felt sorry for Dian, she was a lonely woman in the forest, who was studying gorillas, she got attached to them and started a war with the poachers who were killing, not only the gorillas but other of her beloved animals. I am not amazed she went mad, the environment in Africa was tough and cruel, I don’t know how things are right now in Africa but I was shocked to see how things worked out there. Dian went mad, and anyone who would have seen those whom they loved being killed would go mad. I also think about how I would react if someone killed my cats and my beloved Teti… Actually, I think she was kinda kind to those poachers because I think I would have done worse, far worse. I also do not judge those poachers, they were poor people, they had nothing and needed the animals for food and for money because they had families, etc… It’s understandable, both sides. Africans also did not give a damn about animals, they were just food, and skins, so it’s understandable. I never knew Dian was murdered… Now I know. Life is hard, it is a competition for resources. Dian tried to protect what she loved, poachers tried to feed whom they loved, their kids, etc. There are no easy answers in life, there is no black and white, unfortunately. If you want black and white, go watch Harry Potter.

“Not even Jane Goodall, who considered Dian a dear friend, could publicly defend such tactics. The best she could offer was an attempt at excusing them. Jane did not attend the memorial fundraiser at National Geographic after Dian’s death, but she did send a taped message: “It’s probably true that Dian chose wrongly when she decided to take the law into her own hands, to try to fight the poachers by herself. And yet she felt this way was the only way to try to put right the terrible wrongs that she saw being done. But who are we to blame her? I don’t know how I would react if there were poachers threatening the chimps at Gombe.”
“I warned her,” Jane later told a reporter. “Everybody who was fond of her did. But she didn’t want to listen to things like that. She was a law unto herself.”
Dian’s death, as many see it, was the sum of a neat equation. By imposing her own laws on a sovereign nation, by making enemies of local people instead of friends, by caring more about gorillas than people, Dian was just as responsible for her death as the person who wielded the panga that split her skull.
But Biruté Galdikas, as an anthropologist, offers a different explanation: “Dian was very, very African. That’s the only reason she survived as a lone, white woman on the mountain for nineteen years. She was doing what an African would have done in the same situation.
“What killed Dian,” says Biruté, “was Africa.“
One day, only two years into her study, Dian’s staff reported hearing the wailing of a cow in pain. Dian went to investigate and found an adult bull buffalo wedged in the forked trunk of a Hagenia tree. But poachers had heard the sound first. While the animal was still living, they had hacked off its hind legs for meat. They left it there, bellowing in agony, trying to stand on the stumps, drenched in blood and dung. When it saw her approaching, it snorted in defiance.
Dian, weeping, shot the bull in the head. She wept at the animal’s pain. She wept at the Africans’ cruelty in leaving it in this condition. She wept at the animal’s courage in the face of its agony. But an African, unless his tribal heritage had been modified by Western education, would have laughed.
Here is an African joke: an epidemic swept through a village, and everyone who could move left. Two old, dying men, weak with disease, were left behind with the bodies of the dead, which attracted scavengers and predators. One day a leopard came. It walked up to one of the dying men, easy prey. The man’s companion was too weak to chase the leopard away, but he did cry out, trying to deflect the attack.
The punchline of this joke is the victim’s retort to his friend’s effort to help. His dying words were “So what?”
The Ju/Wa San, or Bushmen, of Namibia told this story to John Marshall—and it is true, they say—amid peals of laughter. Few Westerners would find this story funny. Yet many Africans think the futility of the man’s effort to save a doomed companion is the height of hilarity.
A Belgian who had worked in Rwanda for twenty-five years once told me, “The Africans, they are very nice, they are very smart, but you must remember: we are not the same as them. They are not like you and me.”
Once this man visited the area reputed to be the source of the Nile and found people there diving into a deep pool. One diver never came up; only bubbles rose where he had dived. After five minutes, the Belgian was alarmed and insisted on informing the authorities. He drove to the police station, but no one wanted to investigate. The police told him there was a whirlpool at the bottom of the spring, and that this was the tenth report of a person drowning there that day—and these were only the reported deaths. The Belgian asked if he should go back to retrieve the dead man’s clothes, to return them to his relatives. The police asked, “How long ago did you leave?” And he replied, “Fifteen minutes ago.” “Well,” the police said, “you’re about ten minutes too late.” Nobody even looked for the missing diver—not even his companions, who minutes before had been diving there beside him.
From the struggles of a wounded animal trying to free itself from a snare, to the tragedy of a drowned diver, the African response is almost universally the same. Life is cruel, pain is rampant. “So what?”
“Our ideas about altruism are pretty far from these people’s ideas,” said Robinson McIlvaine, a former director of the African Wildlife Foundation, who lived in Africa for fifteen years. “It’s a cruel life in the bush. They’re used to the fact that everything can disappear in a storm or a coup, that famine can destroy everything. Life is cheap. So you grab what you can.”
He recalls a conversation he once had with the president of Guinea (who, says McIlvaine, “had some admirable qualities even though he was a dictator”). McIlvaine was discussing his ideas for helping polio victims and supplying medicines to the elderly. The president was incredulous. He replied to the American, “We can’t devote any of our scant resources to take care of the old and handicapped.”
“You put that into the light of [Americans] redoing buses so wheelchairs can board,” says McIlvaine, “and you see it’s a different world in Africa.”
It is a world where one in ten babies dies before its first birthday and is likely to be buried in an unmarked grave, without ceremony. Among the Akamba people of Kenya, a newborn is considered not human but an object belonging to the spirits until it has survived for four days.
In Africa small children are made to guard cattle against lions, and the safety of the cattle—a form of currency among tribes like Rwanda’s Tutsi and Kenya’s Masai—is given greater emphasis than the safety of the children in the village’s communal prayers. It is a world where teenagers are often subjected to days of brutal torture in initiation ceremonies. Among the Nandi of Kenya, if a girl cries or screams when her clitoris is ripped out during her initiation ceremony, her relatives may kill her for her cowardice. Merciless tribal wars erupt with the regularity and virulence of recurrent malaria, and each member of the tribe is taught from childhood to face pain and death with neither fear nor pity.
And Africa is a world of personal vengeance. Rosamond Carr, Dian’s American friend in Gisenyi, tells how, less than a year before Dian’s death, an African friend named Valentine—a driver for the American ambassador—exposed another driver for selling American embassy gasoline on the black market. When the man was fired, he yelled at Valentine, “I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you for this!”
A few weeks later Valentine was riding his motorcycle on a Sunday morning when the man, driving a minibus, chased Valentine and struck him down at high speed. Valentine lay crumpled on the road; the man backed the van up and ran him over, crushing him to death.
Tried and convicted in a Kigali courtroom, the man was out of prison in eighteen months. But few Africans expect courtrooms to mete out justice, and according to the religious beliefs of most Africans, God does not punish in the afterlife. Justice can be a very personal affair.
Ian Redmond remembers a conversation he had with one of the Africans who worked at Karisoke: “He said to me that he didn’t understand how Wazungu [whites] sorted out their differences with people. He said, ‘If you get angry with someone, you can hit them, and if you really get angry with them, you can kill them. What about all the in-between? We can poison someone for a week; we can make them ill for a month; we can make them die a slowly lingering death. And there are all these different things we can do to someone with witchcraft. But the Europeans have only a simpleminded approach: hit someone or kill someone. There is no middle ground.’ ”
Dian was typically, even exaggeratedly Western in her attitude toward children and animals. She adored kids; she treated poachers’ children, and even their dogs, with great tenderness. In a land where animals are valued only for food or skins, she sided with the gorillas and duiker and buffalo. But in her “active conservation,” she adopted the tactics and philosophy of an African.”

I am a bit worried about Jane, she never complains, and she works so hard. I hope she is fine.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is 30 years old, so I’m sure there’s plenty new to say by now about the legacies of these three women and about primate and nature studies, but this book still enlightens. It is a thoughtful examination of different ways to do animal science, as well as an interesting overview of each woman’s career. There are similarities and differences between each story. This book gives the impression of being rather thorough while remaining very digestible.

[Joan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an old book. SInce it was published in 1991, Sy Montgomery has changed her audience to youth and learnt the fine art of reducing books' length to emphasize the important messages she wants to convey. This is a book published not long after Dian Fossey had been murdered and perhaps was too focused on what really amounted to gossip about her. Montgomery tried to be fair by reporting both good and bad but you can also sense that she felt that Dian had erred on the side of fanaticism and cruelty in how she reacted to people hurting her mountain gorillas, who were as close as family to her. Even allies sometimes questioned Fossey's tactics. The book shows it's age: she spent a lot of time showing Goodall as being unwilling to help chimps in general which was changing by the time the book was published. She did note the change but obviously this part is very out of date. I picked this up mostly because I was curious about both these three remarkable women and to see how Sy Montgomery used to write. I succeeded in both goals. I learnt a lot about these three women, especially Galdikas, who clearly Montgomery admired the most of the three, and I learnt a lot about Montgomery's old writing style. She has changed her style a great deal, but not her message that animals need our understanding and help. However, I won't go back and read any more of Montgomery's older books but enjoy her more recent titles. Speaking of which, I'm disappointed Tapir Scientist didn't win an honorable mention at least in the 2014 ALA Awards just handed out this week. Oh well, let's see what next year brings!

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Famous archeologist Louis Leakey did something unheard of at the time: he sent an untrained young woman into the wilds of Africa to study an ape thought to be a savage beast. To the surprise of the science community, Jane Goodall not only changed the way we see chimpanzees, but she also gave a voice to animals in a way no one else ever has and, to this day, has changed the way scientists study animals. And in case people didn't think Leakey was crazy enough before, he then sent Dian Fossey, also untrained, into the forests to study mountain gorillas and than later on Birute Galdikas to study orangutans. Though all three women are different in many ways, their unprecedented ways of studying animals have torn apart the scientific community.

I don't think there could have been a better author to write their story. Sy Montgomery understands these three women and their love for the animals and places they've studied. She understands their passion, every tear they've shed, every peaceful moment they've spent among the animals. And more than anything, she understands the battles they've fought as women in science, and the way they have ultimately conquered the male-dominated Science with a capital S.

I have read a lot about Jane Goodall, but I knew little about Dian Fossey when starting this book, and even less about Birute Galdikas. Though Jane Goodall is still my favorite of the three, I respect Dian and Birute for everything they have done for the mountain gorillas and orangutans. Anyone at all interested in any of these three women needs to read this book.

[Brittany · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book covers the three women Louis Leakey sent out to live among the apes: Jane Gooddall with the chimpanzees, Dian Fossey with the gorillas and Birute Galdikas with the orangutans. It is fascinating, in that it analyzes the relationship between and among these three women, their relationship with Louis Leakey (favored daughter, crush, and which-one-were-you-again?) , and their relationships with their apes. Each woman brought her own personality and style to studying "her" animals and then dealing with the results of that study. Each woman has (or had) a different approach to the conservation of her species. And, in the end, each woman seems to be a reflection of the species she studied.

This book is well worth the read, though I think Montgomery's musings on Dian, and her eco-warrior attitude towards poachers are best read in conjunction with Tim Cahill's writings on the same topic. (These can be found in "Life and Love in Gorilla Country," from Jaguars Ripped My Flesh and "Love and Death in Gorilla Country," a from A Wolverine is Eating My Leg).

[Elaine Burnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

An early book, if not Montgomery’s first. She profiles Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Birute Galdikas together in sections by theme. Just really well done, especially the juxtaposition of them and the insight Montgomery brings. Jane was the first, the golden (literally) girl, Dian was the difficult middle child. I knew of Galdikas from her Earthwatch days and this explored her myths and gave critical insight into how and why she works the way she does. Seeing her framed by the others is interesting.

Jane, in particular, changed the way we see animals, and study them. That’s pretty significant. Dian’s life was just tragic all around. Sure, she went off about protecting the gorillas, but it seemed pretty necessary and no one else was going to do it. And Louis Leakey was fascinating. The way he chose the women, that he preferred women around him.

Montgomery’s epilogue got a bit woo woo. She delves into African-ness in trying to explain Dian Fossey. I’m not sure I buy it. All her anecdotes might have come from white people. Is this what Africans told her? It raised my racism hackles, but not sure what to make of it. Essentially, she’s saying Africans don’t care about life—human or animal. Seems like a pretty broad statement to levy on an entire continent. Is Trump a stand-in for all North Americans? Just sayin’.

[Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three stories in one is Montgomery’s MO in what I think is one of her first books published? Spectacularly done! I never found out as much about these three as in any other way, though I absolutely enjoyed the graphic novel Primates that focuses on these three.

Montgomery paints a picture of women in the field, passionate about their apes to a fault, and being who they are in these countries studying and in many cases protecting what are now endangered species. It was about their personal life, their professional life (especially with the advancements that Leakey had for them because he loved beautiful young women without PhDs become PhDs because of their skills in observation particularly. Then we learned about the conditions of their camps, relationships with locals and in their “hometowns” and with the scientific community and lovers.

I was particularly fascinated by all I learned about Dian and how she was murdered by an African machete called a panga in her cabin in the mountains where she studied silverbacks. I also learned about Birute who has the least name recognition at least for me.

Overall, I’m glad to go way back in Montgomery’s work to read this tribute/manual on following your passion and purpose.

[Terrance Zepke · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book IF you're interested in Africa, Borneo, primates, anthropology, etc. The three women mentioned in the title were chosen to go to remote areas of the world to study primates. None of them had any formal training in this field, just a desire to make a difference. They have also been searching for a little adventure, which they certainly got given their circumstances! Goodall studied chimps in Africa while Fossey studied gorillas, also in Africa. Galdikas studied orangutans in Borneo. These women were basically the first to ever conduct any in-depth study of these animals, so they faced many challenges. Their contribution is invaluable. For one thing, they helped save these animals from extinction (most especially the mountain gorilla). And they brought us a greater understanding of these species. I enjoyed learning more about these fascinating women and their work.

[Kathryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book.
I was familiar with Dian Fossey mainly from the film Gorillas in the Mist and had heard of Jane Goodall but mainly for her more recent environmental campaigning, but had never heard of Birute Galdikas who works with the Orangutans of Borneo before reading this book. All three women are truly inspirational, their dedication to the primates they studied and to the preservation of the species was and still is amazing.
This book is beautifully written and the stories conveyed so well that it brought me to tears on several occasions and that is a truly special book that is able to do that to me. I will definitely be reading more by Sy Montgomery and now also want to read the original works by the three scientists.

[Beflow06 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent look into the lives of Lewis Leakey's Ladies!! Enjoyed learning more about what they went through both personally and as females approaching the world of research from a whole new perspective. What? You mean animals can express themselves? Oh My, how dare these females makes such suggestions! I'm glad they were able to prove their theories correct from their long, hard hours spent research these primates!

[Claire Aiken · Rating 3 out of 5]

During my hard core primatology obsession, I read everybook about primates as I could. This book is a great summary of some great women. However, I had already known alot of the information, so it became a little bit repetitive. But, if you don't know anything about naturalist and need to find a starting point, try this book!

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although I don't find the writing to be particularly sophisticated, the descriptions and the facts of these women's stories are incredible. About the 3 women who studied ( and continue to advocate for and work with)the great apes, Jane Goodall, Birute Galdikas and Diane Fosey (RIP).
Makes me realize I can endure much more than I have ever forced myself to.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Goodall, Fossey, and Galdikas - three very different women observing, loving, and protecting their respective great apes.

Very informative and personal, this gives you the facts, but it also tries to explain the women themselves. It attempts to answer the questions of why and how, which is always so much more interesting than the simple what, when, where.

[Jonathan Lanza]

Finished on the couch. Kath got home yesterday. Dad is cooking bacon, eggs, and toast (the sizzle of the stove). Mom is gone to grandparents house. Jeffrey in my sister's room. We are decorating the tree tonight.

Book was great. If only everyone would read this. Maybe it would change the way animals are thought of as lesser beings.

[Yasmin]

I learned a lot about the primates studied by the "Leakey ladies," and the environments they were in - both in the larger scientific communities they contributed to, and their host countries where they lived while researching.

HOWEVER some parts of the book regarding race and Africa I found deeply problematic and off-putting.

Recommend otherwise.

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book on the ape women (Fossy Goodall and Galdikas) and their relationship to Leakey, but it's real insight is the differences in their research styles and the differences between many men and woman in science

[DB · Rating 4 out of 5]

They're reprinting it! Coming out August 25, 2009 under ISBN: 9781603580625

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sy Montgomery does an excellent job with this overview of the three remarkable women Louis Leakey chose to do the field research on the great apes.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have such strong memories of reading and loving this book.

[Briana · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books ever. I was lucky to meet Sy Montgomery shortly after reading this book.

[Hayley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent multi-dimensional read about three controversial, amazing women. I was completely engaged.

[Mary D · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. It includes good brief biographies of Louis leaky's 3 primate women. Very interesting.

[Karthick Soundararajan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really nice book on three of the most