Karisoke Research Center

The Karisoke Research Center was established by Dian Fossey in 1967 and is the site of the world's longest continuous primate study. Access to the site itself — at 3,000m in the bamboo and hagenia forest between Karisimbi and Bisoke — requires a special hike permit that includes a visit to Fossey's grave and the gorilla cemetery where the early study animals are buried, including Digit.

The hike to the site is demanding (three to four hours each way) and must be done with a certified guide. The forest at this altitude is dense and often misty; the ground is soft volcanic soil. At the site, the original camp has long since been dismantled, but the gorilla cemetery is maintained. Fossey's grave is marked with a simple stone next to her beloved gorillas. The atmosphere is affecting.

The Karisoke Research Center is now operated by the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, which continues long-term research on the Volcanoes National Park gorilla families. The fund also supports anti-poaching work and community development in the villages surrounding the park. You can visit the fund's Ellen DeGeneres Campus in Musanze, which has an excellent interpretive exhibition on the gorillas and Fossey's work, without trekking to the mountain site.

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A story
Dian Fossey established Karisoke in 1967 between Mount Karisimbi and Mount Bisoke — the name is a portmanteau of the two peaks. For 18 years she lived here almost continuously, habituating gorilla families, collecting data, and waging a personal war against poachers. She was murdered in her cabin in December 1985, almost certainly by poachers or their associates. The gorilla she had known longest, a silverback she called Digit, had been killed by poachers for his head and hands eight years earlier. Her grave is at the site, next to the gorilla cemetery.