LITHUANIAN PROFILES Among the

PHOTOS: ORANGUTAN FOUNDATION INTERNATIONAL

Birutė Galdikas, born of World War II Lithuanian refugees, has forged an international reputation with extensive research on Borneo’s orangutans.

LITHUANIAN HERITAGE NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 1998 GREAT APES

h a t ’s M y L in e ?” w a s BY TOM GREGG cluded she needed to challenge these early television’s most concerns as well as research when popular game show. with their genetic similarities to man. she arrived in Borneo in late 1971. They awarded no va­ And the three comprise the so-called Backed by three private founda­ cation cruises or lux­ great apes class because of their adult tion grants, she and Canadian hus­ W ury cars, but the game itselfsize, was ranging stim­ from a female chimpan­ band Rod Brinclamour pitched camp ulating. It required a celebrity panel zee’s fifty pounds to a male gorilla’s in the Tanjung Puting game reserve. to guess through yes/no questioning four hundred. But the groups branch­ The Indonesian government sup­ at the occupations of various guests. ed off from the primate biological tree plied several assistants with minimal And the panel got some unusual ones millions of years apart, display differ­ English. The nearest town at the time — lighthouse keeper, skyscraper ent personalities, and exist today was thirty miles away, and the only window washer, United Nations in different parts of the route in and out was by canoe. Roads, translator. world. had there been any, Birutė Galdikas could have pre­ The orangutans have sented the panel with a totally unique been hardest to study, position if she’d been a few years owing to their relati­ ahead with her life’s work. Galdikas, vely shy nature and a considered the world’s foremost geographic distribu­ expert on orangutans, has spent all tion confined now or part of twenty-seven years on a in dwindling num­ pioneer study of the animals. Aided bers to the Borneo more recently by the Orangutan and Sumatra rain Foundation and a 1995 autobiogra­ forests of Indonesia. phy, the job has brought her notori­ Like many of earth’s ety among scientists and ecologists. species in modern Among the general public, howev­ times, the orangs er, even awareness of Birutė’s work have found them­ description leaves a potential for con­ selves threatened fusion. After all, orangutans tend to by both land de­ be lumped with gorillas and chim­ velopment and panzees. The distinctions aren’t illegal hunting. trivial, Galdikas notes in her book Galdikas quickly Reflections o f Eden. True, she writes, — and coura­ all three groups interest researchers geously — con­

Birutė Galdikas (opposite page) engages in a friendly conversation with one of the orangutans she protected and studied. Galdikas' own story (right) was published by Little, Brown and Co. in 1995.

LITHUANIAN HERITAGE 13 would have been turned to mush anyhow by the daily rains; it was the height of the wet season. Leeches, stinging fire ants, and mosquitoes abounded in the humid equatorial heat. The team had no electricity or refrigeration. Diet consisted of a monotonous repetition of rice and sardines, the initial work of clawn- to-clusk hikes in the nearby swamps to locate the elusive apes. Motivation and a sturdy constitu­ tion mean everything under such conditions. Galdikas is unclear her­ self why animals would motivate her so strongly, but she readily credits the constitution to her ancestors. They might have been bewildered by the jungle fevers and rashes she battled constantly, but certainly could have there’s something wrong with admired her characteristic Lithuanian this picture of a young field sci­ tenacity. They likewise would have entist. Equal women’s rights is appreciated her love of the outdoors; a noble aim, but aren’t there lim­ Lithuanians also tend to be nature- its here? Not in Galdikas’ view, lovers. Another useful trait given a or in her late mentor Dr. Louis jungle existence. Leakey’s. One of the most fa­ Her willingness to move far from mous scientists ever, anthropol­ her Canadian childhood roots may be ogist Leakey enlisted women partly explained by a look at the fam­ for all three groundbreaking ily history. Her mother’s parents mi­ great ape studies: Dian Fossey, grated to the U.S. in the late 1800s, Jane Goodall, and Galdikas. produced Birutė’s aunt Bronice, and Fossey, murdered by poachers returned to an independent Lithua­ and featured in the 1988 Holly­ nia after World War I. Birutė’s moth­ wood film Gorillas In The Mist, er was born in Lithuania in 1925. is probably best known to the Birutė was born in a German refugee public. Goodall, first to enter the camp just after World War II; Antanas field, is most highly regarded and Filomena, her newlywed par­ among scientists for her chim­ ents, were fleeing the Soviet Army. panzee research. The family chose to migrate to Can­ One of Leakey’s lesser, yet in­ ada, U.S. immigration at the time teresting theories was that fe­ being hindered by a very restrictive males are in fact better suited quota. Bronice, as a U.S. native, head­ for field work. He cited two reasons: ic Western knowledge on orangutans ed freely for the States. Another ref­ they tend to be more observant, and did not exist. Natives maintained that ugee aunt chose Australia. Paternal the study animals feel less threaten­ the apes could be dangerous. Stories relations, hopeful for a Soviet evac­ ed by them. In any case, the three circulated about them employing uation, remained in Lithuania. Anta­ determined women enjoyed spect­ their great strength (maybe eight nas and Filomena, with two sons and acular successes in physically de­ times that of man, with jaws that can daughters in tow, would eventually manding environments. crack coconuts) in a rare attack on move from Canada to California in Operating from the camp named humans. Mostly, she would find, the the mid 1960s. for her mentor, Birutė had little idea orangutans dwell in the treetops a In a family tree with branches what to expect at first from a research hundred feet above the forest floor spread so wide so fast, geographic standpoint. The UCLA master’s de­ and forage for fruit. Galdikas, with in­ distance loses its daunting quality. gree coursework in Anthropology finite patience over the years, would Still, her attitude and aptitude aside, was superficially helpful, but specif­ discover many orang particulars.

1 4 LITHUANIAN HERITAGE NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 1998 gutan from its incredulous and irate owner. With heightened public awareness, the business of gathering and re­ habilitating ex-captive orangutans would go smoother. She has returned over a hundred to the wild to date, with Camp Leakey serving as a half­ way house. The camp has become something of a tourist attraction in that respect, showcasing the orangs and underscoring their plight. Her crowning achievement with the ex­ captives was being allowed to touch one female’s newborn infant. Try this as an experiment with any wild ani­ mal species if you question its signif­ icance. Born on one continent, raised on a second, and dedicated to a mission on an island off a third, Galdikas to­ day pursues an equally mobile life­ style. She teaches at Above: Camp looks pleasant Canada’s British Co­ enough here, but it's miserably lumbia University hot and damp much of the year. January to May. Sum­ Right: Location of Tanjung Puting mers she convenes in Reserve (now a national park), Los Angeles with fam­ the site of Camp Leakey. ily and associates at Opposite page, top: In this 1957 photo, (left to right) brothers the L.A.-based Oran­ Vytautas and Algis, father gutan Foundation, Antanas, sister Aldona, and the environmentalist Birutė Galdikas at age 11 stand group she co-found- in front of the family's first car, a ed ten years ago. Au­ Ford station wagon. tumns she spends at Opposite page, bottom: Birutė Camp Leakey. As an (pictured with oldest son Binti) academician, she also found that orangutans spend attends numerous considerable time in the treetops conferences, such as foraging for fruit. the one in Vilnius this Although the furry orange beasts persuaded public officials to prohibit past July. In her first visit to her an­ once numbered in the hundreds of logging in Tanjung Puting. cestral homeland, she met with Pres­ thousands, there are less than 30,000 Simultaneously, she strove to ident Adamkus and struck a common left in the wild due to human en­ increase public awareness of the chord immediately: as a former U.S. croachment and recent fires. Thus, hunting laws. As the 1970s dawned, citizen and Environmental Protection Birutė’s environmental work may orangutans were being illegally Agency official, Adamkus remains ultimately prove to be of greater ser­ captured and sold as pets worldwide. keenly interested in the future of wild vice than the scientific. In 1971 Indo­ Transportation conditions were poor animals worldwide. nesian game reserves like Tanjung and the mortality rate high. Local She had a rude jolt when she found Puting offered wildlife little true pro­ people were largely ignorant of these how badly her command of the tection. Laws against hunting were facts. One of the Galdikas book’s Lithuanian tongue had slipped. A not enforced, and it was perfectly most dramatic moments depicts her Lithuanian-Canadian Saturday legal to cut down the trees that served alone in a tenement amidst a hundred schools product, Birutė’s ethnic con- as the orangutans’ habitat. Through hostile Indonesians who’d gathered a letter writing campaign, Galdikas to watch her confiscate a pet oran­ continued on page 29

1998 NOVEMBER /DECEMBER LITHUANIAN HERITAGE 15 Galdikas Jane and Fred are cur­ continued from page 15 rently in their early teens. Schooled mainly in the West and living with their grandparents in L. A., their perspective Doctors Birutė Galdikas, has come around to the Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey (left to right) each Western. enjoyed great success as Many of those person­ a field scientist. ally concerned no doubt have wondered, “What if’? What if Galdikas had sciousness had lan­ opted for the more com­ guished in the Far East. fortable Western life­ But this is only a small style with Brindamour? part of the price she’s What if she had bowed paid for her total com­ to convention, and age? mitment to her work. In But then that would a tragic marital evolu­ have been out of cha­ tion, her marriage to racter; if she had, she Brindamour ended in wouldn’t be where and divorce in 1978, shortly after she took child. Binti is now twenty one and a what she is today. GD her Doctorate at UCLA. Nearing thir­ confirmed Westerner with a taste for Tom Gregg (Grigonis) is a free-lance writer ty at the time and feeling the lack of rock music. Birutė after the change and computer professional based in the his own career, Rod returned to the would wed a native, a union that has Chicago area. Both of his grandparents came West with Binti, the couple’s only produced a girl and a second boy. from Lithuania.

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1998 NOVEMBER/ DECEMBER LITHUANIAN HERITAGE 29