Dian Fossey Quotes

I feel that we have a responsibility to try to do everything we can to protect species, and the best way to do that is to uphold international conservation law.

I weren't an actor, I'd be a wildlife biologist or forest ranger.

Life histories tell you just about everything you need to know about an animal.

I've always had a natural affiliation with nature. If I wasn't an actor, I'd be some sort of biologist working in the field in Africa or something.

It is absolutely imperative that we protect, preserve and pass on this genetic heritage for man and every other living thing in as good a condition as we received it.

An animal that is very abundant, before it gets extinct, it becomes rare. So you don't lose abundant animals. You always lose rare animals. Therefore, they're not perceived as a big loss.

We all have a responsibility to protect endangered species, both for their sake and for the sake of our own future generations.

So, my tactic with conservation of apex predators is to get people excited and take them to where they live.

True conservation means protecting the entire habitat.

My study of the wild gorilla is not yet finished, and even when it is complete, it will contribute only a small part toward man's understanding of his closest animal relatives, the great apes. But one conclusion is already clear: The gorilla is one of the most maligned animals in the world.

Conservation of any endangered species must begin with stringent efforts to protect its natural habitat by the enforcement of rigid legislation against human encroachment into parks and other game sanctuaries.

The protection of biodiversity and, therefore, of endangered species is an issue to which I attach a great deal of importance.

Steve was so wonderful to bring wildlife into our living rooms and let us see that animals we used to be afraid of are so important.

Every species has its pub.

You can cut a tree down, and it grows back. Once a species goes, it's gone forever.

These days, most nature photographers are deeply committed to the environmental message.

I know that Daddy had an important job. He was working to change the world so everyone would love wildlife like he did. He built a hospital to help animals, and he bought lots of land to give animals a safe place to live.

I like animals. I like natural history. The travel bit is not the important bit. The travel bit is what you have to do in order to go and look at animals.

Zoos are becoming facsimiles - or perhaps caricatures - of how animals once were in their natural habitat. If the right policies toward nature were pursued, we would need no zoos at all.

Living wild species are like a library of books still unread. Our heedless destruction of them is akin to burning the library without ever having read its books.

People are not the only interesting organism on earth. From the point of view of scientific or commercial value, there are lots of interesting organisms.

I don't want Daddy's passion to ever end. I want to help endangered wildlife just like he did.

I had in mind a message, although I hope it doesn't intrude too badly, persuading Americans, and especially Southerners, of the critical importance of land and our vanishing natural environment and wildlife.

The one process now going on that will take millions of years to correct is the loss of genetic and species diversity by the destruction of natural habitats. This is the folly our descendants are least likely to forgive us.

My job, my mission, what I have been put on this planet for is to save wildlife.