Birutė Galdikas, the last of the 'trimates', has died, aged 79

Birutė Galdikas, orangutan researcher and advocate, has died, aged 79

In the early 1970s, orangutans were poorly understood and rarely observed in the wild. Their forests in Borneo and Sumatra remained extensive, though early signs of logging and land conversion were already visible. At the same time, a small group of researchers began shifting primatology toward long-term field observation, arguing that understanding elusive species required sustained presence rather than brief expeditions.

Into this setting came Birutė Galdikas, who in 1971 established a research station in Indonesian Borneo that would become one of the longest-running field sites for any wild mammal. Her early work depended less on breakthroughs than persistence. Finding orangutans could take weeks. Over time, she documented feeding patterns, reproduction, and a largely solitary social system that distinguished them from African apes.

From the outset, research and conservation were intertwined. As habitat loss increased, displaced and captured orangutans began to appear more frequently. Galdikas became involved in their treatment and rehabilitation, eventually developing a program that reintroduced more than 450 individuals to the forest. Her hands-on approach drew some criticism for blurring the boundary between observation and intervention, but it also helped establish practical models for conservation.

In 1986 she founded Orangutan Foundation International, expanding her work into habitat protection and community engagement as deforestation accelerated. She operated in a landscape shaped by competing economic pressures, where conservation often depended on negotiation as much as enforcement.

Galdikas was the last surviving member of the “Trimates,” recruited by Louis Leakey alongside Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey, who together brought great apes into public consciousness. By the end of her life, orangutans had become emblematic of broader environmental loss, and the challenge lay less in understanding their decline than in slowing it.