Hello and welcome to another post! This week we will be taking a mind trip to the jungles of Borneo where a great deal of orangutans live. Why are these creatures in trouble? Because loggers are cutting down the rain forest and driving orangutans out of their homes! But enough monkey business, let’s get to the story (JK, orangutans are apes).  

Dr. Biruté Mary Galdikas :

Dr. Biruté Mary Galdikas came to Borneo to study wild orangutans, but soon realized that they were losing their homes. She proceeded to establish a place where the orphaned baby orangutans left behind could be raised to later return to the wild. Her center is called Camp Leakey and is deep in the jungles of Tanjung Putting National Park, home to the largest population of wild orangutans left in the world. Over 300 orphans live at her care center. “I’ve studied wild orangutans for forty years. And we use that knowledge to simulate the different stages of orangutan development with humans acting as surrogate mothers,” says Biruté.  

Humans act as surrogate mothers to the orphaned babies:

The younger and less mature orangutans play on a jungle gym, helping them to learn the skills they’ll eventually need in the wild. And the older orangutans are permitted supervised “playtime” in the jungle. “These orphans grow up so differently than wild orangutans,” Biruté says, “But as long as they feel loved, they’ll have the confidence they need later in life.” In the wild, orangutans typically leave their mothers when they are seven or eight years old. At the center, when the babies are reaching that age, Biruté and her staff identify which ones are ready to thrive on their own in the wild. They want to make absolutely sure that their orangutans are ready to be independent. When it is decided an orangutan is ready to be free, it receives a thorough checkup before its release. After it is deemed healthy, they take the orangutan deeper into Tanjung Puting National Park where one of the last pockets of orangutan habitat still remains.  

One of the orphaned orangutans is getting released into the wild:

Biruté is always torn about releasing one of her babies into the wild. “With every step, I feel a flood of mixed emotions. I’m happy, but I’m also worried. It’s a dangerous world, and I won’t be there to protect them.” But she has no need to fear, because the orphans have gotten all the love and care they needed to prepare them for independence.

Biruté  sharing her noodles with an old friend:

Her lifelong effort to save orphaned orangutans is greatly rewarded when one of the orangutans she raised comes out of the surrounding forest for a visit to Camp Leakey. Biruté  Galdikas’s field study of orangutans is among the longest continuous study of a mammal, and she has studied orangutans longer than any other person in human history. She was featured twice on the cover of National Geographic, wrote numerous scientific articles, and published four books. Her progress and perseverance in the study of orangutans has won her many awards. Her hard work will not be forgotten.  

I hope you enjoyed this week’s post! To learn more about Biruté Galdikas and her fight for orangutans, watch the IMAX film Born to Be Wild. If you have any questions or comments, be sure to share your thoughts in the comments section.