Walking with the Great Apes

The author of The Soul of an Octopus explores the science, wisdom, and lives of 3 legendary 20th-century female primatologists: Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Biruté Galdikas.

Three astounding women scientists have 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. In this fascinating book, The Soul of an Octopus author Sy Montgomery celebrates their lives and work, revealing how Goodall, Fossey, and Galdikas forever changed how we think of our closest evolutionary relatives, of ourselves, and of how to conduct good science.