Other amazing females of past, Dian Fossey is extraordinary. Sigourney Weaver played her in the 1988 film, Gorilllas in the Mist. I recently watched the National Geography original film of Dian Fossey studying the mountain gorillas in Rwanda. Both movies are great, covering her struggle to defend gorillas against poachers from 1967-1983 while studying their behavior daily.
Images from gorillas.org and gorillafund.org