Birute Galdikas

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Birute Galdikas

1948-

Canadian primatologist known for her work with orangutans. Along with Dian Fossey and Jane Goodall, Galdikas is one of the three preemminent researchers of large apes. Her pioneering studies in the 1970s required her to spend weeks on end tracking individual orangutans through the rainforest. Since then she has worked to preserve orangutan habiat with the Indonesian government by establishing national parks and has adopted orphaned orangutans to prepare them for re-release into the wild.