Biruté Galdikas

Biruté Galdikas
OC
Galdikas in 2011
Born
Birutė Marija Filomena Galdikas

(1946-05-10)10 May 1946
Wiesbaden, Greater Hesse, Germany
Died24 March 2026(2026-03-24) (aged 79)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
EducationUCLA (BA, MA, PhD)
Known for
  • Study of orangutans
  • conservation
Children3
Awards
Scientific career
Fields
InstitutionsSimon Fraser University
ThesisOrangutan Adaptation at Tanjung Puting Reserve, Central Borneo
 (1978)

Birutė Marija Filomena Galdikas or Biruté Mary Galdikas OC (10 May 1946 – 24 March 2026) was a Canadian anthropologist, primatologist, conservationist, ethologist and author. She was a professor at Simon Fraser University. In the field of primatology, Galdikas was recognized as a leading authority on orangutans.[1] Prior to her field study of orangutans, scientists knew little about the species.[2]

Early life

Galdikas was born on 10 May 1946 in Wiesbaden, Greater Hesse, Germany.[3] Her parents, Antanas and Filomena Galdikas, were Lithuanian refugees fleeing the Soviet occupation of the Baltic states following World War II. When Galdikas was two years old, the family moved to Canada in 1948,[3] when her father signed a contract to work in copper mining in Quebec. The following year, they relocated to Toronto, where Galdikas grew up. Her father worked as a miner and a contractor. As a young child, Biruté's head was filled with visions of far-off forests and exotic creatures. The first book she borrowed from the Toronto Public Library was a tale about a monkey named Curious George. When she grew older, she was inspired by the National Geographic adventures of Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey.[4] She had two younger brothers and a younger sister.[5][6]

Education

In 1962, the Galdikas family moved to Vancouver. Two years later, after Galdikas had begun studies at the University of British Columbia (UBC), the family moved to the United States, where Galdikas enrolled in the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and studied psychology and zoology.[3] In 1966, she earned her bachelor's degrees in psychology and zoology, jointly awarded by UCLA and UBC. That year she also met her future husband, Rod Brindamour from Vancouver, who was on a trip to Los Angeles. She married Brindamour and earned her master's degree in anthropology from UCLA both in 1969.[3]

During her graduate studies at UCLA, Galdikas met paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey, and proposed a plan aimed at studying orangutans in their natural habitats.[3] Galdikas convinced Leakey to help orchestrate her endeavour, despite his initial reservations. Leakey found funding from the National Geographic Society which agreed to establish a research facility in Borneo.[5][7] Galdikas's research became the basis of her doctoral studies, and she earned her doctorate in anthropology from UCLA in 1978.[5]

Works

Research in Borneo

In 1971, at age 25, Galdikas and her then-husband, photographer Rod Brindamour, arrived in Tanjung Puting Reserve, in Indonesian Borneo. Galdikas was the third of a trio of women appointed by Leakey to study great apes in their natural habitat. Dubbed by Leakey "The Trimates"[8] the trio also included Jane Goodall, who studied chimpanzees, and Dian Fossey, who studied gorillas.[2] Leakey and the National Geographic Society helped Galdikas set up her research camp near the edge of the Java Sea, dubbed "Camp Leakey", to conduct field study on orangutans in Borneo.[1] Before Galdikas's studies, the orangutan was the least understood of the great apes. Her long-term research at Camp Leakey, carried out in collaboration with her doctoral students Gary Shapiro (early 1980s)[9] and Graham L. Banes (2000s–2010s)[10], has spanned multiple generations of fieldwork and contributed substantially to understanding orangutan behavior, ecology, and conservation.[11][12]. Together, this collaborative body of work helped establish one of the most comprehensive longitudinal datasets on a wild great ape population. The research program constitutes the world’s longest continuous study of any mammal led by a single principal investigator.[13]

Orangutan Foundation International

In 1986, Galdikas and her colleagues founded Orangutan Foundation International (OFI), based in Los Angeles, USA, to help support orangutans around the world. Her second husband, Pak Bohap, who was a Dayak rice farmer and tribal president, assisted in setting up sister organisations in Australia, Indonesia, and the United Kingdom and is co-director of the orangutan program in Borneo.[14]

Advocacy and rehabilitation work

Galdikas has remained in Borneo for over 40 years while becoming an outspoken advocate for orangutans and the preservation of their rainforest habitat, which is rapidly being destroyed by loggers, palm oil plantations, gold miners, and unnatural conflagrations.[15] While campaigning actively on behalf of primate conservation and preservation of rainforest, Galdikas continues her field research, among the lengthiest continuous studies of a mammal ever conducted.

Galdikas's conservation efforts extend beyond advocacy, largely focusing on rehabilitation of the orphaned orangutans turned over to her for care. Many of these orphans were once illegal pets, before becoming too smart and difficult for their owners to handle.[1]

She wrote several books, including a memoir entitled Reflections of Eden. In it, Galdikas describes her experiences at Camp Leakey and efforts to rehabilitate ex-captive orangutans and release them into the Borneo rainforest.

Galdikas was a professor at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia, and Professor Extraordinaire at Universitas Nasional in Jakarta, Indonesia. She is also president of the Orangutan Foundation International in Los Angeles, California.

In 2021, Galdikas became a patron of the nature conservation non-profit organisation the Ancient Woods Foundation[16] aiming to protect the remaining old-growth forests in Lithuania with all the biodiversity there.

Death

Galdikas died in Los Angeles on 24 March 2026, at the age of 79.[17]

Recognition

Galdikas was featured in Life; The New York Times; The Washington Post; the Los Angeles Times; numerous television documentaries; and twice on the cover of National Geographic.[1] Galdikas's work has been acknowledged in television shows hosted by Steve Irwin as well as Jeff Corwin on Animal Planet.

In 1995, Galdikas was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Along with fellow Trimate Jane Goodall and preeminent field biologist George Schaller, Galdikas received the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement in 1997 for her groundbreaking field research and lifetime contributions to the advancement of environmental science. Other honours include the Indonesia's Hero for the Earth Award (Kalpataru); Institute of Human Origins Science Award Officer, United Nations Global 500 Award (1993); Elizabeth II Commemorative Medal, the Eddie Bauer Hero of the Earth (1991); PETA Humanitarian Award (1990); and the Sierra Club Chico Mendes Award (1992). She was awarded a key to the city of Las Vegas, Nevada, in 2009 when she gave a presentation for the anthropology department at U.N.L.V.

Media

Books

  • Reflections of Eden: My Years with the Orangutans of Borneo (1995)
  • Orangutan Odyssey (1999)
  • Great Ape Odyssey. (2005). Abrams: New York. ISBN 978-1-4351-1009-0

Film and television

Galdikas stared in the feature documentary Born to Be Wild 3D, released in April 2011. She also appeared in the documentaries Nature (TV series documentary, 2005); Life and Times (TV series documentary, 1996); 30 Years of National Geographic Specials (TV documentary, 1995); Orangutans: Grasping the Last Branch (documentary, 1989); Beauty and the beasts (Channel 4 UK documentary, 1996);[18] The Last Trimate (TV documentary, 2008); and She Walks With Apes (CBC TV documentary, 2019).[19] Terry Pratchett's Jungle Quest (documentary, C4, UK 1995)

Controversy

Galdikas was criticised in the late 1990s regarding her methods of rehabilitation. Primatologists debated the issue on the Internet mailing list Primate-Talk;[20] the issue was further fuelled by the publication of articles in Outside magazine (May 1998)[21] and Newsweek (June 1998).[22] As reported in both articles and summarized in the 1999 book A Dark Place in the Jungle by Canadian novelist Linda Spalding,[23] the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry — with whom Galdikas had clashed over logging policies — claimed that Galdikas held "a very large number of illegal orangutans ... in very poor conditions" at her Indonesian home, prompting the government to consider formal charges.[20] Galdikas denied all such claims in a response to Newsweek in June 1999, remarking that allegations of mistreatment were "simply, wrong" and that the "outlandish" claims formed the basis of "a totally one-sided campaign against me."[24]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d Galdikas-Brindamour, Biruté (October 1975). "Orangutans, Indonesia's "People of the Forest"". National Geographic Magazine. Vol. 148, no. 4. pp. 444–473.
  2. ^ a b de Waal, Frans (January 1995). "The Loneliest of Apes". The New York Times.
  3. ^ a b c d e Spradley, Joseph L., ed. (2013). Scientists and Science. Great Lives From History. Vol. 2. Ipswich, Massachusetts: Salem Press. pp. 339–342. ISBN 978-1-58765-970-6 – via Internet Archive.
  4. ^ Pfeiff, Margo (1993). "Mother to the Apes". Reader's Digest. 143 (855): 127–132.
  5. ^ a b c "Profile: Biruté Galdikas". www.science.ca. 2015. Retrieved 14 August 2015.
  6. ^ Gallardo, Evelyn (1993). Among the Orangutans: The Birute Galdikas Story. Chronicle Books. pp. 8–9. ISBN 0811804089. Retrieved 14 August 2015.
  7. ^ Gallardo, Evelyn (1993). Among the Orangutans: The Birute Galdikas Story. Chronicle Books. pp. 9–10. ISBN 0811804089. Retrieved 14 August 2015.
  8. ^ Galdikas, Birute Mary (6 January 2007). "The Vanishing Man of the Forest". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 December 2013.
  9. ^ Shapiro, G. L. (1985). Factors influencing the variance in sign learning performance by four juvenile orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus). Ph.D. thesis, University of Oklahoma.
  10. ^ Banes, G. L. (2013). Genetic analysis of social structure, mate choice and reproductive success in the endangered wild orang-utans of Tanjung Puting National Park, Central Kalimantan, Republic of Indonesia. Ph.D. thesis, Darwin College, University of Cambridge.
  11. ^ Banes, G. L.; Galdikas, B. M. F.; Vigilant, L. (2015). "Male orang-utan bimaturism and reproductive success at Camp Leakey". Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-015-1991-0
  12. ^ Banes, G. L.; Galdikas, B. M. F.; Vigilant, L. (2016). "Reintroduction of displaced orangutans affects their genetic diversity and population structure". Scientific Reports 6:22026. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep22026
  13. ^ https://orangutan.org/aboutofi/about-dr-birute-mary-galdikas/
  14. ^ "Dr. Biruté Mary Galdikas – Dr. Galdikas Biography". Orangutan Foundation International. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
  15. ^ McDowell, Robin (18 January 2009). "Palm oil frenzy threatens to wipe out orangutans". Associated Press. Archived from the original on 20 January 2009. Retrieved 18 January 2009.
  16. ^ Sengirės fondas
  17. ^ VDU bendruomenė liūdi dėl profesorės Birutės Galdikas netekties (in Lithuanian)
  18. ^ "Sex and the Scientists: Beauty and the Beasts". 12 August 1996 – via www.imdb.com.
  19. ^ "She Walks with Apes | Nature of Things".
  20. ^ a b "News from academe: Monkey Business II". Slate. 20 June 1998. Retrieved 19 January 2014.
  21. ^ [1] Archived 26 September 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  22. ^ Hammer, Joshua (1 June 1998). "A typhoon in a rain-forest Eden". Newsweek. Vol. 131, no. 22. p. 58.
  23. ^ Spalding, Linda (1998). A Dark Place in the Jungle: Science, Orangutans, and Human Nature. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill. ISBN 978-1-56512-226-0.
  24. ^ Galdikas, Birute (29 June 1998). "Galdikas responds". Newsweek. Vol. 131, no. 26. p. 17.
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