In 1956, 23-year-old Anne Innis finished her master’s degree in genetics and boarded a boat alone to South Africa, notebook in hand, to study giraffes. She had loved the animals ever since seeing one at a zoo as a child.
The young giraffe researcher married soon after the trip, becoming Anne Innis Dagg, and completed a PhD. But Dr. Dagg never became a household name like Dr. Goodall and others; her career was severely curtailed because she was denied tenure-track university jobs.Dr.
, with the line, “I’m grieving because my dream of a lifetime is over at 24. I fear that I will never again visit the giraffe in Africa, and I never have.” Alison Reid, who made the documentary, observed Dr. Dagg’s bittersweet response to her new renown. “She couldn’t get back what was taken away from her. She appreciated everything that happened in recent years. But if she had her druthers, she would have taken the career.”
She excelled in her studies at Toronto’s Bishop Strachan School, and completed a bachelor’s degree in biology at U of T in 1955, winning the Gold Medal and $500. After her master’s – her thesis was on mouse genetics – she used that money to fund her trip overseas. The spirit of inquiry filled the household. Mary recalls they found a dead duck, and her mother hung it up on the porch. “Every day we’d go out and see how long it took the maggots to work their way through the feathers.”
She wrote and published books – some under her own imprint, Otter Press – and articles about camels, animal friendships and sexism in academia, among others. She published frequently on giraffes, including two memoirs and a picture book. Ms. Reid began filming her documentary around this time. In 2014, Dr. Dagg updated her book, now titledto include the latest data from her new-found community and address conservation issues.
Source: Education Headlines (educationheadlines.net)
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