Animals & Us
Follow the Sun: From Monsoon Drains to Mountain Gorillas
Ian Redmond
A naturalist's childhood wonder becomes a lifetime of speaking for animals that cannot speak for themselves.
Kintsugi Studio
Animals & Us
Ian Redmond
A naturalist's childhood wonder becomes a lifetime of speaking for animals that cannot speak for themselves.
You don't have to be in crisis to call.
Ian Redmond describes himself as a naturalist by birth, biologist by training, and conservationist by necessity. As a toddler in Malaysia, he squeezed out of his nappy to explore monsoon drains. As a teenager in Yorkshire, he wrote letters to academics whose work fascinated him and hitchhiked to knock on university doors. One letter changed everything. At 21, muddy from army maneuvers in Germany, he received a reply from Dian Fossey offering him work at her gorilla research camp in Rwanda. He said yes.
In November 1976, Ian arrived at Karisoke in darkness, climbing through montane rainforest to find a cabin with an illuminated curtain. His first morning in the field, he and a tracker found fresh poacher signs and crept up on a campfire with only a police whistle. His first gorilla was an infant named Digit, playing in a tree. Ian learned to sketch nose prints to tell individuals apart. Fourteen months later, Digit was speared by poachers for his head and hands. Telling Diane Fossey felt like the second worst thing Ian had ever done.
Years later, Ian followed wild elephants into caves on Mount Elgon, becoming the first person to document what they do when no one is watching. He watched them deep underground, won their trust through patient presence, and had conversations with them using rumbles and body language. Since then, he has spent five decades in conservation work, pushing for international law to protect species that cross borders. His grief and anger over the animals he knew and loved have become fuel for protection that saves thousands of lives today.
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