Background
Galdikas was born on 10 May 1946 in the American-occupied zone of Germany of Lithuanian parents, who were fleeing from the Soviet army.
anthropologist conservationist ethologist primatologist author
Galdikas was born on 10 May 1946 in the American-occupied zone of Germany of Lithuanian parents, who were fleeing from the Soviet army.
In 1949 her parents emigrated to Canada, where Galdikas grew up and began college at the University of British Columbia.
Biruté Galdikas later enrolled at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), where she earned a degree in psychology and began her graduate studies in anthropology.
While in graduate school, she met Louis Leakey (1903 - 1972), the paleoanthropologist famous for his East African discoveries of fossil humans, and obtained his support for her study of orangutans. Leakey had previously enlisted two other women in anthropoid studies: Jane Goodall (chimpanzees) and Dian Fossey (mountain gorillas).
Galdikas pioneered the study of the orangutan, a great ape native to parts of Indonesia and Malaysia. Galdikas convinced Leakey to help orchestrate her endeavor, despite his initial reservations. In 1971 Galdikas made her first trip to Borneo to study orangutans and to complete her requirements for a Ph. D. in anthropology, which she was awarded in 1978. By 1996 Galdikas's research on orangutans had spanned 25 years, or more than three orangutan generations. Galdikas was instrumental in protecting Borneo's designated orangutan preserve, called Tanjung Puting, and helping elevate it to the more secure status of a national park. She also has returned more than 150 ex-captive, wild-born orangutans back to the forest. Galdikas holds joint professorships at Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, and at the Universitas Nasional, Jakarta, Indonesia. She also is the president of the Orangutan Foundation International, Los Angeles, California.
In 1980 Birute married to Pak Bohap, an Indonesian Dayak. Galdikas's first marriage ended in divorce. Also, she married to Rod Brindamour.
She has three children: Binti Galdikas , Frederick Galdikas, and Jane Galdikas.