Orangutan Odyssey

by Biruté M.F. Galdikas, Karl Ammann (Photographer)

For more than 25 years, primatologist Birute Galdikas has lived among the orangutans of Borneo, studying their habits, defending them against loggers and poachers, and nurturing their orphaned youngsters. This pictorial essay brings to life her work with these endangered red apes.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Nature, Animals

144 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1999

About the author

Birutė Marija Filomena Galdikas, OC (born 10 May 1946), is a primatologist, conservationist, ethologist, and author of several books relating to the endangered orangutan, particularly the Bornean orangutan. Well known in the field of modern primatology, Galdikas is recognized as a leading authority on orangutans. Prior to her field study of orangutans, scientists knew little about the species.

Reviews

[Bionic Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Biruté Galdikas is generally acknowledged as the world's leading authority on orangutans. An anthropologist and primatologist, she is a Canadian, born in Germany, to Lithuanian refugees. Biruté Galdikas has pioneered work with these endangered red apes, or as they are sometimes called, "orange people".

"Orangutans are, truly, people of the forest. No other great ape spends as much time in the trees."

Orangutans live only on the Indonesian islands of Borneo and Sumatra. Before the 1970s, very little was known about orangutans; they were far less well understood than the African great apes. In 1971 Biruté Galdikas convinced Louis Leakey to help her put her plan into action, of undertaking a field study, living alongside orangutans. As the third leading female primatologist she thus formed a group of what Louis Leakey (presumably tongue-in-cheek) called "trimates", of whom the other two were Jane Goodall working with chimpanzees, and Diane Fossey studying mountain gorillas.

"The canopy [is] typically a blanket of the contiguous crowns of large trees that block out most of the sunlight. In some cathedral forests, the canopy is so dense that only 5% of the sunlight reaches the lower layers of the forest. Most of the trees in the canopy will never grow large enough to reach the emergent layer. The understory consists of a variety of shade tolerant trees, including some pole trees that are the younger individuals of species that will some day reach the upper layers of the forest. Finally the herbaceous plants, tree seedlings, and saplings on the forest floor make up the ground layer. Where the forest opens up, for example on riverbanks, this layer can be exceedingly rich and lush."

This then is the natural habitat of the orangutan. Initially Louis Leakey and the National Geographic Society helped Biruté Galdikas to set up her research "Camp Leakey". Biruté Galdikas has continued her work in Borneo ever since, studying the habits of orangutans, and greatly expanding scientific knowledge of orangutan behaviour, habitat and diet. Latterly she has increasingly defended them against loggers and poachers, and nurtured their orphaned youngsters, as deforestation due to the palm industry trade drives ruthlessly on. This book, which she wrote with her colleague Nancy Briggs in 1999, and dedicated to Louis Leakey, is a comprehensive record of her studies up to that point. Since then there has been much further devastation and destruction of the orangutans' home, and orangutans are even more seriously endangered. Not only palm oil plantations, but logging, and a succession of bush fires are destroying millions of acres of orangutan habitat.

The book begins with an introduction by Biruté Galdikas's colleague Jane Goodall. Five chapters follow: "The Most Enigmatic Ape in the World", "The Best Mothers in the World", "Kusai: Male Orangutan Extraordinaire", "Borneo's Great Forest", and "Saving Eden". The book therefore covers both general principles as to behaviour, plus a case study or individual portrait of one individual orangutan, a detailed analysis of the environment, and finally its impossible sustainability under present ecological conditions.

There is a wealth of information presented, although the book is in an oversized format, and appears at a glance to be a "coffee table book". The photographs, by Karl Amman, are superb. There are a few studies of captive orangutans kept as pets, prior to their rehabilitation and release into the wild. One photograph is a delightful cover shot from a "National Geographic" magazine in 1980. It show an infant splashing in a bowl of water, with a baby orangutan "piggybacking". Apparently the young orangutan was been being bathed, when the author's own one-year old jumped into the bowl. The baby orangutan immediately playfully climbed on her back, and someone had the foresight to grab the camera. Another, from the same time, shows Gary Shapiro - now Vice-President of "Orangutan Foundation International", but then a student - teaching American sign language to Rinnie, a wild-born adult female orangutan. (She learned more than 30 signs.) Another is a beautiful contre-jour photograph of two juvenile orangutans, silhouetted against snaking vines hanging down from the canopy. These are just three among many.

For the most part, the photographs are atmospheric studies of Borneo's rainforest, showing an orangutan in its natural terrain, plus close-up portraits of various individual orangutans in all their moods. The book is very photograph heavy; a breathtaking pictorial record, not only of attractive pictures, but informative ones, showing different aspects of orangutan behaviour, in the rainforests of Borneo. Additionally, the depth of information presented in the text belies its immediate impression. This is far more than a pictorial essay.

"Orangutan mothers in the wild suckle their juveniles until they are at least five or six years old, and nursing can go on for seven or eight years."

"Immature orangutans may remain with their mothers until they are nine or ten years of age."

Simple statistics such as this make it clear how difficult any efforts at rearing baby orangutans must be. Yet we feel a natural empathy with these apes, and find the gestures and facial expressions of orangutans very easy to read. Often they seem uncannily familiar. This is probably due to the fact that humans share about 97% of the same genetic material as orangutans.

"Female orangutans share food with their young, which is how the young learn about the four hundred different food types that wild orangutans consume in the forest".

Learning this came as a bit of a relief to me. On a visit to a wildlife park once, we were privileged to get close to one of the orangutans there. I studied her with fascination; so alike and yet so different with her long, differently proportioned fingers and thumbs, positioned - unlike my own - ideally for brachiating. Yet there she was, matching her palm against my own on the other side of the glass partition. I felt the significance; the moment of closeness. She then went off in search of food, and quite deliberately offered a handful of nuts to my husband, carefully placing them in a little row on the edge of the frame on the other other side of the window. At the time I had assumed this was some sort of mating ritual; hilariously funny but probably intended as a compliment. I now realise she had more likely assumed this strange looking, hairy, bearded individual to be a juvenile member of her family.

I did not manage to read all the text, because the font in this book is very unusual, and the thin spidery letters with long ascenders do not magnify very easily. There is also a great deal of dense text in a wide format book such as this one. Each page covers about three times the text of an average paperback, and it is therefore not as accessible as it could have been. It is, however, written in a readable style, for non-specialists in the field, and is fascinating; a satisfyingly in-depth study. The pictorial content is outstanding, and overall I feel that this is a solid 4 star book.

[Udit Nair · Rating 4 out of 5]

The innocent beauty and grandeur of orangutans in the wild should provide evidence enough of their value to mankind. But unfortunately the increasing rate at which tropical rainforests are depleting is a serious cause of concern for these majestic species. This pictorial essay is compiled by Birute Galdikas who has spent her life dedicated to the cause of orangutan conservation.

Orangutans are indeed the most enigmatic ape in the world. Orangutans strictly bond with individuals whether its human or other orangutan. Their relationships are extremely individual and extremely personal as compared to chimps and gorillas who prefer social bonds more. Orangutans are the eloquent ambassadors for the disappearing tropical rainforest and I sincerely hope that it does not become extinct in our own lifetime. It would be a travesty if the person of the forest disappears in front of our eyes.

[Valerie · Rating 5 out of 5]

We read the statistics of rainforest destruction...and if not numbed to the numbers by now, surely we will be soon. The number of acres destroyed daily, weekly, hourly seems impossible. Indeed the enormity of the numbers is itself almost a barrier to persuading people to action.

A recent family vacation to Borneo (Sabah) brought home acutely to us just how little there is left of South East Asian rainforests, last natural home on earth for the amazing orangutans. After seeing the destruction of the rainforest before our eyes in Sabah (dump trucks parked on the edge of the river) we saw more on our way home: we live in Singapore, and our plane descended over Sumatra (a mere 40 miles from Singapore, across the Straits of Malacca), over the other last remaining natural orangutan habitat in the world. But what we saw from the sky broke our hearts: Sumatra is now almost entirely a desert.

Buy this book and educate yourself and your friends about the amazing and gorgeous orangutans. The photogrpahy in the book is stunning. Then learn all you can about the irreversible--and nearly complete--process of rainforest destruction. Habitat destruction is the most pernicious danger primates face. (And there are a multitude of others.) And stop eating Oreo cookies and the many other products made from palm oil. (Rainforests are being cut down to make way for palm oil plantations.)

[Oliver Munevar-Pelton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought it would be more like “Gorillas in the Mist”. It gets three stars for the lovely pictures and because I like orangutans.

[Conor Flynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Photos of baby orangutans! Plus amazing stories and observations from the woman who went to Borneo to found the first orangutan study and rehabilitation center.

If you've ever watched a nature documentary and wanted to go beyond the sound bites, this is the kind of book to take that next step and begin to learn about our brother and sister species on planet Earth.

[DC · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous photography and readable popular science.

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read this in more detail in the author's "Reflections of Eden: My Years with the Orangutans of Borneo" but this is a nice recap with absolutely gorgeous photos.

[Bill Leach · Rating 4 out of 5]

Birute Gaildikas began studying orangutans in 1971, encouraged by the anthropologist Louis Leaky who felt that insight into early man could be had through the study of apes. She was proceeded by Diane Fossey and Jane Goodall who worked with the gorillas and chimpanzees. The orangutans are the most difficult of the apes to observe as they are solitary, spend virtually all of their time high in the rainforest canopy and forage over large areas.

The male and female spend time together only when mating. Females mate every eight years or so. The intervening period is entirely devoted to care of the youngster (twins are rare). When the female becomes pregnant again, the juvenile leaves his mother for the first time and intermittently visits with other juveniles before becoming an adult.

Being solitary, orangutans do not normally display social skills but when they meet other orangutans, social skills emerge such as a respect for rank. They develop relationships with other individuals rather than a community.

Male orangutans range between 200 and 300 pounds in the wild - much larger than the females at around 90 pounds. With their huge arms and the cheekpads that give them an almost circular face, they look so different from the females that at one time they were thought to be different animals.

Orangutans are primarily fruit eaters. As rainforest trees tend to fruit sporadically, orangutans must track dozens of fruiting trees over a large area. They know how to eat the fruit of hundreds of tree species, many requiring processing to overcome shells, burs, latex and poisons. Passing on this knowledge to the young is a part of their upbringing.

One chapter examines the impacts on the tropical rainforests of Borneo of large scale forestry, farming and mining. Galdikas looks at some of the criticisms of the orangutan rehabilitation projects and provides her counter arguments.

[William Trently · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very beautiful photos in this book of "People of the Forest" who have evolved to make surviving in the rain forest look easy! The book has a concise text by Birute Galdikas. One photo is of an orangutan nest at the top of the canopy. Another is of an adult orangutan standing upright with ease.