Princess and the Tree
On August 3, 1978, I carried a four-year-old orangutan named Princess from Camp Leakey into the nearby swamp forest. I had arrived at the research camp only a month earlier to study whether orangutans…
From the Forest
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Orangutans, their disappearing habitat and the people who know them
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Explore stories about orangutans, the forests they depend on and the people working to protect their future.
Akmad
In 1971, Biruté Galdikas and I embarked on a project, funded primarily by the National Geographic Society and the Louis Leakey Foundation,…
The Gold Miners Up the Sekonyer River
At the time, I was coordinating a group of volunteers working in and around Camp Leakey. The job involved organizing supplies, arranging…
Princess
In 2017, we returned to the rainforests of Kalimantan to search for an orangutan I had known since childhood. Princess was already…
Why I Built the Orangutan Conservation Initiative
I have thought about making my own orangutan website for a long time. It was one of those thoughts I kept coming…
Growing Up Around Camp Leakey
I was born in Indonesia in 1976. My parents were Biruté Galdikas and Rod Brindamour, the founders of Camp Leakey, the research…
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