Hi! My name is Janilyn Melrose. But all my friends call me Jani. I am in seventh grade at Oak Street Middle School. All my friends say that I have a wild imagination. I guess that's true. I like stories about far away places and then pretend that I am the main character in the story. I call it EXCITING1

What adventure will I have today??

I just love books. I can go to all kinds of faraway and mysterious places. I can travel in my mind and become part of the story. My friends call me a nerd - they don't know what they are missing!!

I REALLY like my English class. Our teacher,

Ms. Hodges, has us read a lot of interesting books, besides teaching us about grammar (ugh!). The best assignment she gave our class was for each of us to read about a famous person who made a difference in some way. My imagination started working right away!!

I am thinking about looking for a book about animals that live far away. Hmm - maybe Africa or the Antartic! I think I'll go to the animal section and scour the book shelves.

Jani scanned through all the books about animals that are found in Africa. In her search, she found the name and picture of Diane Fossey in one of the books about mountain gorillas.  She was a scientist who helped save the endangered mountain gorillas in Africa. 

Jani continued reading until bedtime.  She found learning about the gorillas in Africaso interesting that when she finally fell asleep, she found herself dreaming about a trip to Africa.

All Jani had to do now was to  make herself as small as a ladybug in order to slide herself into the story and become Diane Fossey and go to Africa .  She packed her backpack with pencils and notebooks. Her first assignment was to locate the mountain gorillas that Dr. Fossey studied.

Gorillas are HUGE!

FACT

Gorillas are the largest living primates. They are gentle and live together in family groups. They are herbivores and can weigh up to 300 lbs.

Dr. Fossey lived with the mountain gorillas in their natural habitat for several years. She wanted to observe their daily life in order to find clues as to why they are endangered.

Dr. Fossey observed that mountain gorillas eat all kinds of plants and fruits. They eat the stems, buds and leaves of plants.  They also eat the fruit from fruit trees. Since they are afraid of water,  they depend on the plant vegetation such as succulent plants to provide  water. If they have to go higher into the mountains, the trees and vegetation become sparse. Mountain gorillas can weigh as much as 300 pounds and require an ample daily supply of vegetation to remain healthy.

She observed how humans

often came into their

habitat. Some humans are

careful not to harm their

surroundings. Some humans,

however, come into their

habitat bringing illnesses

that can be deadly to the

gorilla. And some humans come for the trees. They have cut down so many trees that the vegetation in their habitat dies and the gorillas have to move farther up the mountain.

There are many different tribes of people who live in Africa. Sometimes the tribes are not able to remain friendly and work together and a civil war breaks out among the tribes. This can be very dangerous for the gorillas.

The natives in Africa know how important it is to help the endangered mountain gorillas survive. In general the natives are gentle, happy people as are the mountain gorillas as they also live in their family tribes.