Primates

Scientist, Conservationist, Ethologist, and Educator. Dr. Birutė Galdikas, a Canadian anthropologist, is considered the world's foremost expert on orangutans. Like Fossey and Goodall, Galdikas was a student of Louis Leakey. In 1971, Galdikas along with her then-husband, Rod Brindamour, arrived in Tanjung Puting Reserve in Indonesian Borneo to study the little known and elusive orangutan. Over 50 years later,  Dr. Galdikas has conducted the longest continuous study by one principal investigator of any wild mammal in the world. In 1986, along with the help of her colleagues, she set up the Orangutan Foundation International to help support the education about and conservation of orangutans around the world. Dr. Galdikas' work in Indonesia was featured prominently in the 2011 documentary "Born to Be Wild."