Walking With Gorillas

An Inspiring Memoir, for Fans of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Frans De Waal In her enchanting memoir, Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, Uganda's first wildlife veterinarian, tells the remarkable story from her animal-loving childhood to her career protecting endangered mountain gorillas and other wild animals. She is also the defender of people as a groundbreaking promoter of human public health and an advocate for revolutionary integrated approaches to saving our planet. In an increasingly interconnected world, animal and human health alike depend on sustainable solutions. Dr. Gladys has developed an innovative approach to conservation among the endangered Mountain Gorillas of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest and their human neighbors. Walking with Gorillas takes the reader on an incredible personal journey with Dr. Gladys, from her early days as a student in Uganda, enduring the assassination of her father during a military coup, to her veterinarian education in England, to establishing the first veterinary department for the Ugandan government and founding one of the first organizations in the world that enables people to coexist with wildlife through improving the health and well-being of both. In the face of discrimination and a male-dominated world, one woman's passion and determination to build a brighter future for the local wildlife and human community offers inspiration and insights into what is truly possible for our planet when we come together.

Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, a 2026 CNN Hero, is a 2021 United Nations Champion of the Earth, 2022 Edinburgh Medal winner, National Geographic Explorer, and the recipient of the Sierra Club Earthcare Award. While treating the mountain gorillas of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, she founded her nonprofit, Conservation Through Public Health, a systems-changing policy of making human health a priority to assure the health of wild life, and the social enterprise Gorilla Conservation Coffee to protect endangered gorillas by creating prosperity for the local human communities. She lives outside Kampala, Uganda, with her husband and sons.