Who Is Biruté Galdikas? Find Out Here!
Biruté Galdikas is one of the most renowned scientists, along with Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey, references in the study and protection of primates. His specialty is the reinsertion of small orphaned orangutans into the wild.
Many conservationists choose to travel to distant lands to protect wild species and devote their entire lives to the study of these species. Biruté Galdikas is one of the greatest examples.
Biruté Galdikas: first steps
Biruté Galdikas was born in 1946 in Germany, although she was raised in Canada, where her interest in animals grew and grew.
In March 1969, the young Biruté attended a presentation by the anthropologist Louis Leakey at the University of California.
In the presentation, he spoke of the dangers that great apes face. Thus, the young student ended up becoming interested in evolutionary theories and started dedicating herself to the area.
Leakey had already mentored and encouraged Jane Goodall’s research projects with Gombe’s chimpanzees, and Dian Fossey’s with Virunga’s gorillas.
In this way, Galdikas convinced him to finance his research with orangutans as well.
Leakey allowed these three women to revolutionize our knowledge of the animal world, even though he was a very demanding man. He used to ask his candidates to remove the appendix, something Biruté did without hesitation.
Biruté Galdikas, another of Leakey’s angels
In this way, Biruté Galdikas became, along with Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey, one of the so-called “angels of Leakey”.
The three had their careers boosted by the anthropologist. However, at some point, they began to overshadow Leakey’s career by discovering and studying the behavior of three of the great apes.
After receiving funding from National Geographic, Biruté settled in Borneo. There, only Alfred Wallace had known and studied orangutans in the mid-19th century.
This species is much more elusive than other primates, as they are very solitary in nature. Thus, although Galdikas started their work after Fossey and Goodall, they started in the same way.
She didn’t have any information about these animals at first, but would go on to become the world’s greatest expert on them.
Biruté Galdikas’ great work with orphaned orangutans
In 1971, Biruté Galdikas founded the Louis Leakey Research Center in southern Borneo, where he would begin to study orangutans. She has become an expert at reinserting primates into their habitat.
His work was made necessary by the fact that every year hundreds of orphaned orangutans appear at the site. Animals were killed by humans in their unrestrained search for palm oil, used in the food industry.
the ghosts of the forests
Although Biruté Galdikas has a lot of experience with orphans, wild orangutans were very elusive and for many years there were few encounters with them.
Usually, when she found one, it quickly disappeared into the dense forests of Borneo.
Despite this, Biruté’s work allowed her to learn more about this primate’s life. His findings include the study of the animal’s eating habits, which has more than 300 food sources, mainly plants, fungi and some insects.
Like other great apes, orangutans are very intelligent. They are an example of animals that use tools and that develop a culture.
Unfortunately, it is a very endangered species. However, Biruté Galdikas and her team continue to protect these animals from extinction, despite the fact that, as she has assured in interviews, it is something dangerous because of conflicts with hunters.
The deforestation of the jungles of Borneo is the main cause of the danger of extinction for these animals. For this, it is important to realize that not consuming palm oil can be a good way to protect the orangutan and help in the conservation of the species.
