Walking With the Great Apes

Walking With the Great Apes By Sy Montgomery

For my science book, I read Walking With the Great Apes by Sy Montgomery. This book follows three women who worked with Louis Leakey studying primates in the wild, nicknamed the "Three Primates". 

     One of the women the book follows is Jane Goodall. Having grown up in London, she studied chimpanzees in Tanzania for most of her life and now raises awareness for wildlife conservation.

Jane Goodall

A chimpanzee

The book also explores the life of American Dian Fossey, who studied Mountain Gorillas in Rwanda, where poaching has nearly eradicated the population. Her anti-poaching regime was controversial, and stories about it have been exaggerated. She was tragically murdered in 1985. 

Dian Fossey

A Mountain Gorilla

Finally, the book discusses Biruté Galdikas, a Canadian, who observed the elusive orangutan in Boreno. To protect and save the orangutans, she established strong relationships with the local people, marrying one in her second marraige. 

Biruté Galdikas

An Orangutan 

Montgomery wrote this book to give us further insight into the lives of these three women, and to document their relationships with the apes as friends, family and study subjects, as well as talk about their personal relationships with spouses, lovers, mentors, and each other. The book is divided into three sections: Nurturers, which discusses the unique relationships and bonds these women had with their study subjects, Scientists, which talks about how the women observed, documented, and studied the animals, and, finally, Warriors, which talks about the anti-poaching and conservation efforts these women undertook to protect the apes. I enjoyed this book very much. I thought it was well organized and very informative, while at the same time reading like a suspenseful story. Before I read this I didn't even know that Diane and Biruté existed. I would rate this book 5/5 stars, and recommend it to animal lovers and those interested in studying the natural world. But beware, at times the book can be a little slow, and if you're only interested in the relationships these women had with the apes, you might want to find another book. 

-Rae Correll-Brown