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Biruté Mary Galdikas is the foremost protector of orangutans on the planet. Also known as Biruté Marija Filomena Galdikas, she is frequently described as the third woman sent by paleontologist Dr. Louis B. Leakey to study primates in their natural habitat, after Dian Fossey and Jane Goodall, and is therefore known as one of Leakey's Angels. Although she was dubbed "Queen of the Orangutans"; in Italy and profiled by the New York Times and Time, she has not been one to play to the media. She is the only foreign-born person to win the Hero of the Earth Award (Kalpataru), from the Indonesian government. She has studied and protected orangutans in Tanjung Puting National Park, Indonesia, since 1971, and she has also long been associated with the Department of Archaeology at Simon Fraser University.

Galdikas' parents met in a refugee camp after fleeing Lithuania at the end of WWII. She was born in West Germany in 1946 but came to Canada at age two, settling in Toronto, then moving to Vancouver in 1962. She married Rod Brindamour while attending the University of California. After attending a Leakey lecture in Los Angeles, she asked Leakey for his help in order to study orangutans. "Are you willing to have your appendix removed?"; Leakey asked. It was a test. Galdikas offered to have her tonsils taken out, too. Leakey suggested Brindamour accompany her to Borneo to photograph orangutans. Three years later, in 1971, the young couple left for Borneo, stopping at National Geographic headquarters in Washington, D.C., for training and equipment. They flew to Kenya to visit Leakey, briefly acquired some field training from Goodall in Tanzania, stopped in Pakistan, India and Nepal, and then arrived in Jakarta. "At first I thought we would be just holding down the fort until reinforcements came,"; she recalls. "I never envisioned that we were the cavalry.";

Gradually they accumulated sightings, allocating names according to Jane Goodall's method: related apes were always given names beginning with the same letter of the alphabet. "What started out as an academic study,"; she says, "quickly evolved into a passion."; Dr. Leakey died of a heart attack in 1972 but Goodall encouraged Galdikas and Brindamour to persist. National Geographic arrived with a camera crew in 1975. Binti Paul Galdikas Brindamour was born in 1976 and grew up with orangutans as playmates, imitating orangutans as his siblings. The marriage buckled but Galdikas didn't. Rod Brindamour left for Canada to pursue a career in computer science. In 1981, Galdikas married her co-worker Pak Bohap and they have several children. Galdikas' Reflections of Eden: My Years with the Orangutans of Borneo (1995) was followed by Orangutan Odyssey (1999) and Great Ape Odyssey (2005).

Galdikas has proven that orangutans have the longest birth intervals of any mammal: a wild adult female has young once every eight years. Orangutan females give birth alone. Mothers will carry their young for four years; some are not weaned until six or seven years. Male-to-male competition for females is fierce. Forced copulation exists. Orangutans share 97% of human DNA, making them the third-closest relations to humans after chimpanzees and gorillas.


FULL ENTRY:

Biruté Mary Galdikas is the foremost protector of orangutans on the planet. Also known as Biruté Marija Filomena Galdikas, she is invariably described as the third woman sent by paleontologist Dr. Louis B. Leakey to study primates in their natural habitat, after Dian Fossey and Jane Goodall, and is therefore known as one of "Leakey's Angels." She is an Officer of the Order of Canada and also the only foreign-born person ever to win the Kalpataru, Hero of the Environment Award, from the Indonesian government. While studying orangutans for more than thirty-five years, Biruté Mary Galdikas has also taught as a Professor in the Department of Archaeology at Simon Fraser University.

Galdikas' parents met in a refugee camp after fleeing Lithuania at the end of World War II. She was born in West Germany in 1946 but came to Canada at age two, settling in Toronto, then moving to Vancouver in 1962. After high school in B.C., she met and married Rod Brindamour while attending University of California in Los Angeles. There she also attended a Leakey lecture. Afterwards she asked Leakey for his help in order to study orangutans. Are you willing to have your appendix removed?" Leakey asked. It was a test. Galdikas offered to have her tonsils taken out, too. Leakey suggested Brindamour accompany her to Borneo to photograph orangutans. Three years later, the young couple left for Borneo in 1971, stopping at National Geographic headquarters in Washington, D.C. for training and equipment. They flew to Kenya to visit Leakey, briefly acquired some field training from Goodall in Tanzania, stopped in Pakistan, India and Nepal, then arrived in Jakarta. "At first I thought we would be just holding down the fort until reinforcements came," she recalls, "I never envisioned that we were the cavalry."

In their first year at Camp Leakey the couple lost more than twenty pounds each, they suffered mysterious infections, humidity rotted their boots and they lived in a single logger's cabin. They quickly learned orangutans were commonly kept as illegal pets. The first Indonesian phrase Rod Brindamour learned was, 'This officer is here with me so he can confiscate your orangutan.' They also learned the hard way that orangutans are loners who live in treetops. One Japanese scientist had searched for two months without a single sighting. Gradually they accumulated sightings, allocating names according to Jane Goodall's method: related apes were always given names beginning with the same letter of the alphabet. "What started out as an academic study," she says,"; quickly evolved into a passion." Dr. Leakey died of a heart attack in 1972. For his followers it was a serious setback emotionally. Jane Goodall encouraged Galdikas and Brindamour to persist. National Geographic arrived with a camera crew in 1975. Binti Paul Galdikas Brindamour was born in 1976. Their son was a mini-Tarzan. Binti grew up with orangutans as playmates, imitating orangutans as his siblings. It was worrisome for both parents because one of Camp Leakey's more violent orangutans, Sugito, had killed other orphans. The marriage buckled under the pressure; Birute didn't. Rod Brindamour left for Canada to pursue a career in computer science. He soon remarried whereupon Birute took Binti to live with Rod Brindamour and his new wife. (Jane Goodall had previously made a similar decision when she sent her son to live in London without her.)

Galdikas has published her research in Science magazine. She has been dubbed 'Queen of the Orangutans' in Italy and profiled by The New York Times and Time, but she has not been one to play to the media. In 1981 Birute married her co-worker Pak Bohap. They have had several children. When the children appear in her slides during presentations, she doesn't add any sentimental or intimate comments. Whenever she has returned to Simon Fraser University to teach primatology, her husband Pak Bohap has remained at Camp Leakey to maintain her research and conservation site. Galdikas has established that orangutans have the longest birth intervals of any mammal: A wild adult female has young once every eight years. Orangutan females give birth' alone. Mothers will carry their young for four years; some are not weaned until six' or seven years. "Orangutans are excruciatingly vulnerable to extinction," she says. Orangutans are also accomplished toolmakers and imitators. Male-to-male competition for females is fierce. Forcible copulation (rape) exists. Orangutans share 97% of human DNA. They are the third-closest associates to humans: after chimpanzees and gorillas. But that's not why they're so important. "Orangutans have never left the Garden of Eden," Galdikas says, "They have: never left the canopy of the rainforest." By this Galdikas means that orangutans still occupy their original habitat: unlike more adaptive chimps, gorillas and humans. It therefore follows that the mysteries of human behaviour and instincts might be divulged most readily if we can continue to study orangutans in the wild.

Galdikas holds a Ph.D in anthropology from UCLA and has served as president of the Orangutan Foundation International in Los Angeles. Her memoir is Reflections of Eden: My Years with the Orangutans of Borneo (Little, Brown 1995). Great Ape Odyssey (Harry N. Abrams, 2005), with 125 photographs by Karl Ammann, is her follow-up to Orangutan Odyssey (Harry N. Abrams, 1999), co-authored with Nancy Briggs and photograper Karl Ammann.

BOOKS:

Reflections of Eden: My Years with the Orangutans of Borneo (Little, Brown 1995)

Orangutan Odyssey (Harry N. Abrams, 1999), co-authored with Nancy Briggs and photograper Karl Ammann.

Great Ape Odyssey (Harry N. Abrams, 2005), with 125 photographs by Karl Ammann,

Biographical Publications by other authors

Montgomery, Sy. 2003 Walking with the Apes: Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, Biruté Galdikas. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston.

Gallardo, Evelyn. 1993 Among the Orangutans: The Birute Galdikas Story. Chronicle Books, San Francisco.

[BCBW 2010]