Біруте Галдикас: Орангутандарды зерттеуші және қорғаушы ғалым

Lithuanian Canadian primatologist, conservationist (born 1946)

Birutė Marija Filomena Galdikas or Birutė Mary Galdikas, OC (born 10 May 1946), is a Lithuanian Canadian anthropologist, primatologist, conservationist, ethologist, and author. She is a professor at Simon Fraser University. In the field of primatology, Galdikas is recognized as a leading authority on orangutans. Prior to her field study of orangutans, scientists knew little about the species.

Galdikas was born on 10 May 1946 in Wiesbaden, West Germany. 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, She has two younger brothers and a younger sister.

In 1962, the Galdikas family moved to Vancouver, where Galdikas met her future husband, Rod Brindamour. 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. Her research became the basis of her doctoral studies, and she earned her doctorate in anthropology from UCLA in 1978. the trio also included Jane Goodall, who studied chimpanzees, and Dian Fossey, who studied gorillas. 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. aiming to protect the remaining old growth forests in Lithuania with all the biodiversity there.

Galdikas has been 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. The Last Trimate (TV documentary, 2008), and She Walks With Apes (CBC TV documentary, 2019). Terry Pratchett's Jungle Quest (documentary, C4, UK 1995)

Galdikas was criticised in the late 1990s regarding her methods of rehabilitation. Primatologists debated the issue on the Internet mailing list Primate Talk; the issue was further fuelled by the publication of articles in Outside magazine (May 1998) and Newsweek (June 1998). As reported in both articles and summarized in the 1999 book A Dark Place in the Jungle by Canadian novelist Linda Spalding, 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.