Canadian orangutan scientist Birute Galdikas dies at 79

Birute Marie Galdikas, a Canadian scientist who dedicated her life to the study and conservation of orangutans, has died. She was 79 years old.

Galdikas died Tuesday morning in Los Angeles surrounded by loved ones after a battle with lung cancer, according to the Orangutan Foundation International, which Galdikas founded in 1986 to support his research in Borneo, Indonesia.

He will be best remembered for his “unwavering dedication” to orangutans, said Ruth Linsky, a PhD candidate at Simon Fraser University. Linsky was trained by Galdikas, worked with him at the research center in Borneo, and is on the board of the Canadian branch of the foundation. She was with Galdikas and close family when she died.

“Everything he did was for them,” Linsky said. “He was truly a unique soul in that way.”

Linksy helped write a statement on the foundation’s website, describing how Galdikas’ five decades in Indonesia “established him as the world’s leading expert on orangutans and gave him a platform from which he passionately advocates.”

“Their efforts have almost single-handedly preserved the largest remaining population of wild orangutans that survive today,” the statement said, referring to Galdikas, the research station established in Tanjung Puting National Park.

Before Galdikas began his research, his professors told him that they believed orangutans would be impossible to study in the wild because they were so elusive, wary of humans, and lived in swampy forests.

“I was skeptical. I was skeptical. People said it couldn’t be done,” he told the currentmatt galloway In 2021.

Undaunted, she traveled to Tanjung Puting in Central Borneo in 1971 with her then-husband, photographer Rod Brindamore.

He said, “No one had ever been there. No one knew anyone who had been there.” “So it was really a trip terra incognita” Galdikas recalled.

The orangutans were shy, and Galdikas said it took some of them years to get used to him. Nevertheless, his dedication, patience and observation came to paint a vivid picture of the lives of these little-known apes – he recorded 400 types of food they ate; how they organized their societies, fought, and chose companions; And saw how they gave birth. One of their interesting discoveries was that the orangutans in Tanjung Puting only produce one baby every 7.7 years.

Galdikas also established a rehabilitation center, which has since helped 450 captive orangutans return to the wild.

Tanjung Puting became a national park in 1983 because of his work.

“I still feel exceptionally fortunate that God gave me the privilege of living in the wilderness for years,” she told Galloway.

Galdikas said she was motivated by a desire to understand humans. “So my love of orangutans grew out of my curiosity and desire to understand where we came from, where we’re going and how we fit into the universe,” he said. 2019 CBC documentary.

Galdikas was born on his way from Lithuania to Canada and grew up in Toronto. At the age of six, she saw her first library book, curious GeorgeAbout a man and his monkey, and soon she decides she wants to be an explorer, according to his bio On the Foundation’s website.

He studied psychology and zoology at the University of British Columbia and the University of California at Los Angeles, where he also received a master’s degree in anthropology.

Last of the ‘Trimets’

He began his work on orangutans for his PhD after meeting the renowned Kenyan paleontologist Louis Leakey and convincing him to fund the work.

This made her the last of the “TriMate” – a trio that also included renowned primatologist Jane Goodall, who studied chimpanzeesand Dian Fossey, who studied gorillas. All three were given guidance and support by Leakey, and Galdikas named his research site in Borneo “Camp Leakey” in his honour. hoe He died during a public speaking tour last year And Fossey was brutally murdered by hunters in Rwanda in 1985..

In 1975, Galdikas had a son from Brindamore. Brindamor left Indonesia in the late 1970s and the couple divorced. Galdikas later married Pak Bohap, a local native Dayak elder who worked as a research assistant at Camp Leakey, with whom she had a son and a daughter. Daughter, Frederick and Jane (named after Goodall) Galdakis, who was with him at the time of his death.

Galdikas published his first scientific article on orangutans in the prestigious journal Science in 1978.

She became extraordinary professor at the National University in Jakarta, Indonesia in the 1970s, and professor at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, BC in 1981.

He has been awarded the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, the United Nations Global 500 Award, the Explorers Medal, was made an Officer of the Order of Canada, and for service to the country he was awarded the Indonesian Satya Lenkana and Kalpataru, both awarded directly by the President of Indonesia.

Anna Rathmann, Executive Director of the Jane Goodall Institute USA, Wrote in a Facebook post on WednesdayThat Galdikas “was steadfast in her dedication to wild orangutans and their rainforest habitat. Like Jane Goodall, she believed in the sentience of all animals, worked hard for the conservation of orangutans in particular, and reminded us that we are intrinsically connected to the natural world.”

Bella Lamm, CEO of the Jane Goodall Institute of Canada, said the Trimates were pioneers who inspired each other and others who followed them. He laments that although Galdikas’ passing marks the end of an era, the three primatologists have “paved the way for the rest of us to move forward.”

Ian Redmond, president of the Ape Alliance, a coalition dedicated to the conservation of apes that Baldikas helped found, wrote: ““His legacy is immense, laying the foundation for our scientific understanding of orangutan behavior and ecology, improved protection of key orangutan habitat, and increased public awareness of the red ape and its role as a keystone species in the forests of Borneo.”

Galdakis is survived by his three children and grandchildren.