[music playing]
WOMAN 1: For her time,
Dian was very exceptional.
Women wanted to get
married and have kids.
Setting up Karisoke, and
studying the gorillas,
and living that
whole kind of life
was completely not how
she was brought up.
She was not raised in
an animal loving family.
She followed her own
path very soon in life.
MAN 1: She had aspirations to
work with animals as a vet,
but she didn't get the grades.
So she ended up
working with children,
as an occupational
therapist, which she did for,
must have been, 10 years.
So she'd already had
a successful career
before this complete
change of direction.
MAN 2: She wasn't doing it
to get academic credentials.
WOMAN 1: The
paleoanthropologist,
Louis Leakey, was looking
for somebody to go start
a long-term study of gorilla's.
He had helped launch
Jane Goodall's career.
WOMAN 2: I'd already
decided that I
must study gorillas before
first meeting Dr. Leakey.
After a brief
interview, he suggested
that I become the gorilla
girl he had been seeking.
And our conversation
ended with his assertion
that I should have
my appendix removed
before venturing into the remote
wilderness of Central Africa.
WOMAN 1: Leakey mentioned the
possibility of having to have
her appendix out,
and she put herself
right in for the operation.
He was shocked, but,
clearly, it convinced
him that this one might stick.
She was very determined.
