Fossey migrated as a young 10-year-old female into the North Group of the Taï study chimpanzees during the summer months of 1988, possibly at the same time as Vénus, another immigrant. She was small but strongly built, carrying a proud pink sexual swelling and was immediately very confident with the males of the community. She had her first baby we called Diane in February 1992. Sadly, as happens so often, this first baby did not survive for very long. She disappeared within 10 days. Fossey started to have sexual swellings again within weeks and was seen to spend all her time with the adult males. On 12 November 1993, Fossey gave birth to her second daughter, Fédora. The little girl grew rapidly and was a healthy and curious chimpanzee. I remember her suckling eagerly at her mother's nipples at the same time looking at the world around her, including me, the strange biped, while her mother cracked nuts with a stone hammer on a root anvil. Fédora was very keen on nuts, which she received from her generous mother during the first 3 years. With great enthusiasm, she soon tried to crack them herself with whatever looked to her inexperienced eyes like a pounding tool, but was mostly ineffective. She used to steal intact nuts from her mother's collection and tried to pound them with her hands, a stick, a soft branch and even a piece of a broken termite mound. Whenever her mother collected more nuts and abandoned her hammer on the anvil, she would rush to use it, often even forgetting to place the nut. However, by trial and error, she quickly corrected such typical infant mistakes and, at the age of 6 years, had become an expert nut cracker, very assiduous although not yet very efficient. Her younger brother, Faust, would look at her with wide eyes.