Anne Innis Dagg, a legendary biologist who spent most of her career studying the elegance and activities of giraffes in the wild, has reportedly died at the age of 91. Her official cause of death was listed as pneumonia.
The iconic biologist died in a hospital located in Kitchener, Ontario, west of Toronto. Dagg’s dedication to wildlife, and the observance of that wildlife in its natural habitat, were truly unparalleled.
Her research is considered the best, and first, legitimate research of the natural life of giraffes in the wild. At the time Dagg conducted her research, very little was known about the animal’s natural activities.
She aptly earned the nickname “the Jane Goodall of giraffes,” for her dedication to the animals, though Dagg began her observational career years before Goodall started. Dagg made her first trip to Africa in 1956.
Dagg’s life was depicted in a 2018 biopic film called “The Woman Who Loves Giraffes.” That film was directed by Alison Reid, who confirmed Dagg’s death.
The New York Times reports on her death,
Anne Innis Dagg, who broke ground in the 1950s as one of the world’s first biologists to study giraffes in the wild, then spent decades fighting sexism in Canadian universities before finally finding long-overdue acclaim in the 2010s, died on April 1 in Kitchener, Ontario, west of Toronto. She was 91.
Alison Reid, who documented Dr. Dagg’s life in the 2018 film “The Woman Who Loves Giraffes,” said the cause of her death, in a hospital, was pneumonia.
Dr. Dagg was often called “the Jane Goodall of giraffes,” but in a different world the attribution might have been reversed. Dr. Dagg traveled to Africa in 1956, four years before Dr. Goodall did her first fieldwork with primates; in fact, she is believed to have been the first Western scientist to study African animals of any type in the wild.
The New York Times
Rest in peace, Anne Dagg!
