Dr. Anne Innis Dagg

Dr. Anne Innis Dagg is the world’s foremost authority on giraffes. Years before Diane Fossey and Jane Goodall studied apes in the wild, Anne had already been learning about giraffes in South Africa. In the mid-1950s, Anne – at the time in her early twenties – went to South Africa on her own to study giraffes. As a single young woman, she was denied an opportunity to access several farms to study giraffes, based on her gender. She finally convinced a manager who worked land near Kruger National Park – 33,000 hectares and home to 95 giraffes – to allow her to conduct her research in the wild. In 1958, Anne published her observations of giraffes in the journal Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London.

Anne’s work in South Africa and further research on giraffes and other mammals at the University of Waterloo was the topic of her PhD thesis and her seminal text on giraffes, The Giraffe: Its Biology, Behaviour, and Ecology (1976). Despite her outstanding research, publishing, and academic success, Anne was denied tenure at both the University of Guelph and the University of Waterloo, and she filed a complaint with the Ontario Human Rights Commission with Wilfrid Laurier University about gender bias in hiring.

Dr. Anne Innis Dagg was awarded the Batke Human Rights Award in 1984 by the K-W Status of Women in recognition of her work in the fields of social justice and gender equality. She received the Lifetime Achievement Award (now called the Dr. Anne Innis Dagg Excellence in Giraffe Science Award) at the International Giraffid conference in 2016; and she is an Honorary Member of the Canadian Society of Zoologists. Dagg’s research on giraffes and her experiences in South Africa were featured on the CBC’s radio series, Ideas, in 2011. The radio program prompted the 2018 documentary, The Woman Who Loves Giraffes, chronicling Dagg’s life, career and her recognized impact on the study of giraffes. In 2019, Anne was named a member of the Order of Canada.

In June 2021, the University of Toronto recognized Anne with a Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, for her “outstanding service for the public good as a trailblazing scientist and a passionate advocate for equity in academia.” At the University of Toronto ceremony, Anne urged the Class of 2021 to “never stop reading, writing, watching and thinking” and to persevere in the face of challenges.

Dr. Anne Innis Dagg’s legacy in the Region of Waterloo extends beyond her outstanding research in giraffes and other mammals to her ground-breaking efforts to emphasize equity in hiring and recognition in academia. A Foundation has been created in her name – Anne Innis Dagg Foundation -which focuses on habitat conservation and equality. She also leads the Junior Giraffe Club to engage youth aged 7 to 17 in all things giraffe.