Ground-breaking Canadian giraffe researcher and feminist activist Anne Innis Dagg has died at the age of 91.
In 1956, Innis Dagg travelled to South Africa at just 23 years old, becoming the first western scientist to study giraffes in the wild.
At the time, women were not expected to do field biology. In fact, Innis Dagg hid the fact she was female while making arrangements for her South Africa trip.
She went on to get her PhD in Animal Behaviour at the University of Waterloo in 1967.
Innis Dagg wrote 60 scientific papers and 26 books on giraffes during her lifetime, including the 1976 book “Giraffe: Biology, Behaviour and Conservation,” considered the definitive text on the animal.
Still, she faced numerous barriers as a female scientist, leading her to become an advocate for gender equality, particularly in academia.
In 1972, she was denied tenure at the University of Guelph. In an interview with CTV’s W5 in 2021, Innis Dagg maintained that decision was due only to her gender.
Innis Dagg says she was also told by a University of Waterloo Dean that he would never give tenure to a married woman, and when she applied to Wilfrid Laurier University positions she was never granted an interview.
Anne Innis Dagg stands in front of Spot the Giraffe in Waterloo, meant to highlight her many years of work studying and educating people about the animal. (Jessica Smith/CTV Kitchener) (July 25, 2021)
Eventually, Innis Dagg was hired by the students of the Integrated Studies program at the University of Waterloo in 1986, where she worked to fight discrimination for women in academia.
Decades later, the University of Guelph offered a formal public apology to Innis Dagg for her treatment by the institution, also creating a summer research scholarship in her name for a female student.
Wilfrid Laurier University also holds an annual Anne Innis Dagg lecture, featuring notable Canadian women studying animal biology. The last one was held just a few weeks ago on March 7, with Anne in attendance.
Innis Dagg also received numerous honourary doctorates during her lifetime, and the Order of Canada in 2020.
That same year, Innis Dagg established the Anne Innis Dagg Foundation, focused on raising awareness and funding for conservation in Africa to help giraffes survive and thrive in the wild.
Innis Dagg died in Kitchener on April 1, 2024.
More to come.