It is with deep and personal reflection and a sense of profound history that I share the passing on March 24th of Dr. Biruté Marija Filomena Galdikas—one of the most influential figures in orangutan research and conservation, and someone whose life intersected with mine for nearly half a century.
Biruté was a pioneer in every sense of the word. As one of the three protégés of Dr. Louis Leakey—alongside Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey—she brought the world’s attention to the quiet, contemplative lives of orangutans in the forests of Borneo. Through her work at Camp Leakey in Tanjung Puting, she revealed the deep intelligence, complex ecology, and slow life history of a species that had long remained elusive to science.
Image circa 1979- courtesy of Rod Brindamour
My own journey with orangutans is inseparable from Biruté. In the late 1970s, she and Rod Brindamour gave me the rare opportunity to enter that world—not simply as an observer, but as an active participant. Under her direction, I became the first person to teach sign language to free-ranging ex-captive orangutans, an experiment that pushed the boundaries of what we believed possible in great ape cognition and communication. During periods of her absence, I was entrusted with managing Camp Leakey—caring for orangutans in rehabilitation, navigating the daily realities of fieldwork, and living immersed in the rhythms of the forest.
As I reflect in Out of the Cage, those years were formative, not only scientifically but philosophically. They shaped my understanding of orangutans as beings of patience, foresight, and quiet awareness—qualities that Biruté herself, in her best moments, deeply respected and helped bring to light through her research.
Our relationship, like many forged in remote field conditions and high-stakes conservation work, was complex. We shared a vision, but often approached it from different angles. There were times of collaboration, times of tension, and times of distance. Yet, through it all, there remained a thread of shared purpose: to better understand and protect the “persons of the forest.”
Working at OFI together-early 1990s.
In the mid-1980s, we co-founded what would become Orangutan Foundation International, the first orangutan advocacy organization in an effort to expand the reach of orangutan research and conservation. That shared beginning stands as a testament to what can emerge when passion and purpose align, even amid differing perspectives.
Biruté’s legacy is undeniable. She helped uncover the orangutan’s extraordinarily long birth interval, their intricate relationship with forest ecosystems, and the urgent need for long-term habitat protection. She stood as a powerful example—especially for women in science—of what dedication, courage, and persistence can achieve.
For me, her passing is not just the loss of a colleague in the field of primatology, but the closing of a chapter that began in the dense forests of Borneo nearly fifty years ago. Those early days—captured in fading photographs and vivid memories—remain some of the most defining of my life.
We did not always walk the same path, but we walked the same forest.
And in that shared forest, we both came to understand that orangutans are not merely subjects of study, but fellow travelers in the story of life—beings worthy of respect, protection, and, ultimately, recognition.
May her work continue to inspire future generations to listen more closely to the forest, to act with greater care, and to carry forward the responsibility we all share.
—Gary Shapiro