#birute galdikas

[a-contemplative-soul]

I can notice how fascinated Jane is with chimps, even with all the complications of getting into an unknown wild territory and being just a young woman with barely any knowledge about primatology, she still adventured herself in the midst of the african jungles. Jane Goodall is indeed a remarkable woman, along with Dian Fossey, Birute Galdikas and Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, they all brought unparalleled knowledge about primatology and related fields.

Channel: Institut Jane Goodall France

Video: Jane Goodall : Retrospective

Year: 1960 - 2013

[frnwhcom]

Birute Galdikas: A Guardian of the Great Apes

In primatology and conservation, few names shine as brightly as Birute Galdikas. Renowned for her pioneering research and tireless advocacy for orangutans, Galdikas has dedicated her life to understanding and protecting these magnificent creatures. Her work, spanning over five decades in the lush rainforests of Borneo, Indonesia, has significantly contributed to our knowledge of orangutan…

[betterthanapokeintheeye]

[Documentary News]Terry Pratchett’s Jungle Quest

This long lost 26 minute documentary, originally shown on channel 4, has been lovingly restored by its creators and is now available on Amazon Prime Video for all to see.

Made in 1995, a full 18 years before the much acclaimed Facing Extinction, Terry embarked on a journey of discovery into the jungles of Borneo with Ian Redmond and Dr Birute Galdikas to find these secretive creatures for himself.

"When Terry Pratchett, best-selling author of the 'Discworld' series of Science Fantasy novels, invented the much loved character of 'The Librarian', he could not have imagined that it would be the beginning of a personal quest that would take him into the jungles of Borneo.

The books began Terry's interest in and concern for orangutans; he even became a trustee of the Orangutan Foundation.  Terry realised that he knew very little about these close cousins of humans and planned a boat trip, up the Sekonyer River from Kumi in Borneo to meet orangutans in the wild.  His travelling companion was Ian Redmond, a primatologist who worked with Diane Fossey and the gorillas of Rwanda, and who now wanted to photograph orangutans for his latest book.  Ian too was visiting Borneo for the first time.

Almost on his arrival, Terry encountered his first orangutan - in a cage!  It was an ex-captive, baby orang, victim of the trade in orangutans as pets, waiting to be returned to the jungle.  Keeping orangs as pets used to be an Indonesian tradition.  Now, with just 300,000 left in the wild, it is illegal - catching the babies often involves killing the mothers.

Terry’s mission had an aim beyond encountering orangutans in their natural habitat.  He also hoped to make contact with the legendary Birute Galdikas, a contemporary of Fossey's who has been working with and studying orangutans in Borneo for over twenty years.  When he tracked her down at her remote base at Camp Leakey he learned that Birute regards orangutans as ‘another kind of us’ - they share 98% of their genetic make-up with human beings, as well as an intense curiosity, a sense of fun, and a liking for human company in small doses.  He also learned that despite her efforts to protect the rainforest from the loggers, Birute fears for the future of the red apes as even the National Park is steadily reduced.

At Camp Leakey Terry discovered for himself the importance of a place where people and apes can share the world with no bars between them. And he achieved his aim of getting ‘close’ to orangutans when a huge male known as Kusasi emerged from the jungle, sat for a few minutes just feet away from Terry and Ian, and then quietly returned to the forest.”

To Rent £3.99 - To Buy £4.99

Amazon Prime Video UK (associate Link)

[nix-that-rad-lass]

I wanna start a cult dedicated to worshipping Dian Fossey, Jane Goodall, and Birute Galdikas. Cult activities will include loving nature and women and hating poachers and rapists

[thiswildcuriosity]

Wild About the Trimates

Unlikely researchers who were initially greeted with skepticism, Dian Fossey, Jane Goodall, and Birute Galdikas changed our understanding of gorillas, chimpanzees, and orangutans.

Photo source.

[therobishow]

I think I'm done with podcasts made by men

I love listening to podcasts while I work. Especially ones related to history, film, and literature.

And damn near every time I try listening to ones that are made by men, I end up hitting a point where I have to stop listening and switch to something else. There's always a point where they say something that is so ignorant, blatantly sexist, etc., that I just can't take it.

Often times it's the host buying into a very male-centered lens of interpreting whatever it is they're discussing. And, you know, that's kind of expected. They're men. They're viewing things as men. I get that and I'm usually willing to just roll my eyes and move on. But then it keeps happening, or gets much worse than what can be excused by simple ignorance. And then I can't just roll my eyes anymore. I just want to start yelling. And that's not a good energy to have while I'm trying to do my job. So I switch over to something else.

A good example of this happened today. I was listening to a podcast called History by Hollywood. I found it because I'm a huge fan of History Buffs on Youtube. Comparing historical fiction to the actual history is fascinating to me. I love learning about the real event and how it's translated into fiction. But...it got bad. Real fucking bad.

Now, I can't place all the blame on the creators of HbH. They had guests who do a podcast that I think is called Green Screen, which discusses films through an environmental lens. And I definitely will not be listening to that podcast after hearing them today.

The episode was about Gorillas in the Mist, which is biopic about Dr. Dian Fossey. If you don't know who Dian Fossey is, look her up. She was one of the group known as the Trimates, sometimes called Leakey's Angels. The group consisted of three women who were expert primatologists: Birute Galdikas, who studied orangutans; Jane Goodall, possibly the most well known of the three, who studied chimpanzees; and Fossey herself, who studied gorillas. I would love to write hundreds of pages about how awesome and unbelievably badass these women are/were. Seriously, learn about these women if you haven't already. They are amazing.

Anyway, the episode was about Dr. Fossey. My first issue is that, despite her PhD, they never once referred to her with her proper title. This is upsettingly common with women who have earned doctorates. Men never want to call them Doctor. It frustrates me to no end. But that's not nearly the worst of it. They went on to discuss how she became pregnant twice during her time in Rwanda. She chose to abort both pregnancies because she did not want pregnancy or motherhood to interfere with her work with the gorillas. One of the GS guys commented on this saying "I suppose her reasons could be considered valid." Um, excuse me? First of all, why do you think that you get to decide whether or not she had valid reasons? You don't. Second, of course her reasons are valid. Whatever a woman's reasons are for having an abortion are valid. She's the only one who gets to make that decision. So fuck right off with that. Sorry for getting a bit heated here, but that really pissed me off. There was no need for a comment like that. Especially since it makes it sound like he doesn't actually think her reasons are valid, but is scared of catching heat so tried to sugarcoat it.

Moving on, TW: rape, they also got into the fact that Dr. Fossey stated that she was repeatedly raped by soldiers in 1966 over the course of two weeks. People freaking love to claim that this is "disputed" or "exaggerated" and some go as far as to claim that it was an outright lie. Why? Because she originally claimed that she was treated well and then escorted to the border. Later on, she admitted that she was actually beaten and raped. I'm not going to delve too far into this because a) this post is already way longer than I intended, and b) I will get SO MAD. For the sake of brevity, I'm just going to say that I believe that she was raped, and that she initially lied because she was not ready for this information to become public. The hosts however...well, they'd like to claim that they didn't come down on either side of this "debate" and simply presented facts. But they totally don't think she was raped. They went on and on about all the reasons that she would have lied about being raped, such as political clout, publicity, propaganda, and other dumb reasons. But just couldn't seem to think of any reason that she would have lied about not being raped. Gotta love how men are always able to come up with fifty million reasons why women would make false accusations. It's absolutely not in any way revealing how they think of women.

They also got into the admittedly shitty things that Dr. Fossey did during her time in Rwanda. She wasn't perfect, and she did do some rather bad things. Her approach to conservation work was very much steeped in a colonialist mindset. I'm not about to deny that. And they did do a good job of explaining some of the more overlooked facts of poaching--most African poachers aren't cartoon villains who want to destroy nature. Many are farmers who are killing animals that threaten their crops and/or livestock. And then they get offered lots of money to do it. It's not a simple issue, and doesn't have a simple solution. I don't have a problem with them addressing this, and I'm glad that they did. However, and this is a pretty big HOWEVER, they also didn't discuss any of the great things she did. She saved a huge number of gorillas. She helped improve the Rwandan economy. She fought against multiple colonialist organizations trying to exploit Rwanda and it's wildlife. She helped to revolutionize the field of primatology. There's so much that we know now that we only know because of her. They also decided that the fact that she's a heavily revered and respected figure in Rwanda was worth a few sentences and that was it.

They referred to her as cold and unfeeling multiple times, largely due to her relationship with Bob Campbell, who was married when they met. Apparently the fact that she didn't stick with him for her whole life means that she's cold and uncaring. Ugh. I just fucking can't with this.

And the cherry on top, they made jokes about her murder. Yep. Dr. Fossey was horribly and brutally murdered with a machete in December of 1985. And they apparently think that's funny. Now, I know that some of the people who were close to Dr. Fossey have also made jokes regarding her death. However, there are several Grand Canyon-sized differences between someone using humor to cope with the death of someone they loved, and some assholes with a podcast making jokes about the brutal murder of a woman they never met. They also said that it doesn't matter who killed her or if they're ever caught. Which...no? It very much matters who snuck into this woman's home in the middle of the night and used a machete to brutally murder her. It very much matters if this person is caught. I can't even imagine trying to say that it doesn't matter if an actual murderer is ever caught.

All of this goes into a huge problem when it comes to studying history, especially the history of science. Women are always scrutinized more heavily, always criticized with more vitriol, and always have their enormous accomplishments either left out entirely or pushed to side. I almost never see male scientists given this treatment. Edison comes close, but he always gets quite a bit of "Yeah, he was awful, but let's not forget all the awesome things he did!" Women however get "Yeah, she did a few cool things for science, but let's not forget that she had an abortion!"

I just can't handle this shit anymore. If you managed to get all the way to the end of this wall of text (yay) please recommend me some good history/literature podcasts created by women. I will love you so much.

[moonskek]

"As I sit, my back leaning against a damp, moss-covered tree trunk, my eyes sweeping the canopy above, my ears straining to catch the crack of a distant branch that betrays an orangutan moving in the treetops, I think about how we humans search for God. The tropical rain forest is the most complex thing an ordinary human can experience on this planet. A walk in the rain forest is a walk into the mind of God."

Birute M.F. Galdikas, Reflections of Eden: My Years with the Orangutans of Borneo

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ONE OF MY MOST BELOVED IDOLS AND HEROES, THE LOVELY BIRUTE GALDIKAS✨❣

[rootsandshootsusa-blog]

Ain’t that the truth.

[listinsemanal]

Bellas y bestias. El mejor homenaje a la mujer

Bellas y bestias. El mejor homenaje a la mujer

Como homenaje a la mujer en la celebración del día de hoy elegimos la recomendación de la lectura de un libro cuyo título es Bellas y bestias. Así lo tituló su autora, la primatóloga, escritora y realizadora de documentales Carole Jahme. Sus “bellas” son tres científicas que se especializaron en el estudio de la conducta de los monos antropoides en el corazón de sus selvas nativas de África y de…

[a-contemplative-soul]

Bonobos indeed seem to be our closest relatives, it's noticeable that their language complexity is nearly as complex as ours, except that they lack verbal skills. It's just frustrating that most of our closest species are extinct, if they were still alive, maybe completing the puzzle of our evolutionary process would be easier.

Channel: Time

Video: Bonobos: One Of Humankind's Closest Relatives & What They Can Teach Us | TIME

Year: 2016

[sempiterno2012]

#Dian Fossey

[funnywildlife]

Orangutan 🦧Cub Metro! #Repost @paulconormckenzie ・・・ The world owes a debt to Louis Leakey, who, in the 1960s, had the foresight to choose two women, neither especially remarkable at the time, to go out and study two of the great ape species. The world became captivated by both Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey as they unlocked the mysteries of chimpanzees and mountain gorillas by living among them. In 1971, Dr. Leakey added a third primatologist, a 25-year-old Canadian, Birute Galdikas, to his roster, this time to study the elusive “red ape” in the name of science and conservation. All three wrote enthralling autobiographies, but for me, Galdikas’ “Reflections of Eden” sits at the top mainly because of the beyond challenging conditions that she had to endure in her early years, deep in the rain forests of Kalimantan, Indonesia. She would spend many of her days chest deep in snake and crocodile infested swamps, searching for the orangutans. Blood sucking leeches and swarms of carnivorous insects were ever-present, and her body was permanently covered in itchy rashes and sores while plagued constantly by tropical fevers. It is a wonder that she was able to conduct any research. But over the course of thirty plus years she became the foremost chronicler of orangutan life. The orangutans in the vicinity of her main research base, Camp Leakey, are wild but today many are habituated to humans, having been released from the illegal pet trade or being descendants of those that have. As with the mountain gorillas in Rwanda/Uganda and the Congo, it is possible to have relatively close encounters with the orangutans. The guides know most of the individual apes and like humans, they each have their individual personalities – some gentle, some aggressive and hence the guides are able to warn you as to how approachable certain individuals are. The best encounters of course are when placid and friendly individuals approach you, such as the case with this mother and baby 11 years ago. The light in the forest was so dim that I was forced to use some fill flash with a diffuser. Nowadays with the greatly enhanced dynamic range of digital cameras, this would no longer be necessary https://www.instagram.com/p/B-nofujA5mw/?igshid=jxdrppnrk7se

[mycroftrh]

Gorillas: “Bless her heart”

oh my goodness, one of dian fossey’s first close up observations with gorillas happened when she was trying to climb a tree to see them better, but so badly that by the time she’d gotten up the entire group had come out of hiding to look at her: “Nearly all members of the group had totally exposed themselves, forgetting about hiding coyly behind foliage screens because it was obvious to them that the observer had been distracted by tree-climbing problems, an activity they could understand.”

[radila-u]

Kok Aku Nggak Bisa Kayak Mereka?

Malam ini, ketika sedang berkelana mencari bahan presentasi hingga akhirnya sampai ke website lab Mechanical Ecology University of Bristol dan menemukan anggota labnya, sampailah aku pada tingkat kepo yang berujung pada insecurity. 

Salah seorang anggota lab tersebut adalah seorang mahasiswa PhD, yang meneliti tentang kantong semar. Oke, kuakui aku kepo karena tidak sengaja melihat fotonya dengan peneliti lain, and on the picture he looks cute. :)  Aku menemukan beritanya yang mendatangi salah satu herbarium di Indonesia. Tahu tidak, sejak masih anak-anak dia telah tertarik dengan kantong semar yang menurutnya aneh dan unik, hingga ia menyukainya dan mempelajarinya sampai saat ini. Dan sekarang ia telah memiliki koleksi 90 jenis tanaman pemangsa serangga dari berbagai negara di rumahnya di London. :)

Lalu, muncullah rasa insecure itu. Aku melihat orang-orang sedari kecil sudah memiliki ketertarikan khusus pada bidang tertentu, lalu tetap fokus hingga menghasilkan sesuatu. Aku? Tentu aku punya ketertarikan juga, tapi terhadap banyak hal, dan sifatnya dangkal saja. 

Kemudian aku kembali membandingkan diriku yang polos tanpa ide dan pemikiran kritis ini dengannya yang di usia muda sudah menghasilkan berbagai publikasi yang tentunya tidak bisa tercipta tanpa adanya ide-ide dan masalah-masalah penelitian yang ingin dijawab. Begitulah, aku bukan orang yang kreatif secara alami yang punya berbagai ide menarik untuk diteliti. Ini mengingatkanku pada kutipan sampul belakang buku Guns, Germs, & Steel:

PADA 1970-an, ketika sedang berada di Papua untuk meneliti burung, Jared Diamond ditanyai oleh sahabatnya yang orang Papua: Mengapa orang kulit putih membuat banyak barang berharga, sementara orang Papua tidak? Pertanyaan itu sebenarnya adalah pertanyaan mengenai mengapa kemajuan peradaban di berbagai benua itu berbeda-beda.

Memang benarlah adanya. Aku pun sering menyaksikan, para konservasionis, orang-orang yang peduli dan punya peran penting dalam riset maupun akademisi bukanlah orang-orang lokal. Mereka meninggalkan negaranya untuk mengabdikan diri pada penyelamatan sumber daya alam yang tidak mereka miliki di negaranya. Lihat saja Chanee Kalaweit serta Birute Galdikas dan orangutan di Borneo (Kalimantan), Dian Fossey dan gorilla di Afrika, dan yang paling fenomenal di antara mereka: Jane Goodall dan simpanse di Afrika.

Belakangan, rasa ingin tahuku yang muncul hanya sebatas bagaimana cara pembuatan bubble wrap sehingga tercipta benda sederhana pengalih suntuk itu, yang dilatarbelakangi seringnya paket yang kuterima menggunakan bubble wrap. Atau, kenapa di salah satu mata kuliahku dosennya tidak pernah masuk bahkan hingga UTS dan tugas yang diberikan pun ternyata tidak sesuai silabus? Dan sekarang bertambah, apa perbedaan antara orang-orang dari negara maju dan negara berkembang yang membangun karakter dan kebiasaan mereka menjadi lebih maju di bidangnya? Sederhananya: kok aku nggak bisa kayak mereka????

Tapi sudahlah, aku tidak tahu mau menulis apa lagi. Lebih baik aku melanjutkan pencarian bahan presentasi.

[proboscismonkey]

“Gorillas had Dian Fossey, orangutans have Birute Galdikas, chimpanzees have Jane Goodall, and the forth largest primates, the proboscis monkeys, have Amalia Rezeki.”

[old-school-butch]

"Sex is a construct, there's no such thing as female or male, identity is everything" - this discourse is part of a wider culture that distances us from other species. Pioneering primatologists - Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, Birute Galdikas, all women - proved the profound links between humans and other apes, with a strong message: we are not "special", we are part of the natural world and must stop pillaging it. But the arrogant conviction that humans are separate and superior still persists...

I have a pet theory that at least some of this is due to new reproductive tech that helped us gain some control over our fertility, but has left us somewhat distanced from that biological reality. People in the west talk about sexual relationships with very little awareness that without birth control, PIV sex leads to pregnancy within 6 months on average and within 1 year 95% of women will be pregnant. The girls abducted by Boko Harem are all pregnant when they are returned. 48,000 Rohingya refugee women have been raped and are giving birth in the camps because Myanmar men wanted to send Rohingya men a message. Historically women spent an enormous amount of our lives being pregnant and/or breastfeeding. Birth control and low infant mortality have led to a revolution in women’s work and women’s lives that is no less significant than the agricultural revolutions that freed up 98% of the male population from farming. So perhaps the biological grind seems rather distant and theoretical now for a very small group of Western women with access to medicine, but it’s a fragile revolution in process and we are not in control of it.

At least, that’s what I think when I listen to trans activists talk about things like transwomen in sports competing against women. All the women supporting them must be physically inactive and never see or experience the obvious competitive differences between the sexes. Sure, you can find a small, inactive man and know that there is a woman somewhere in the world who could crush him, but I guarantee there’s still a man somewhere in the world who could crush her. If you took a random bus full of men and women and sorted them by sex into sports teams, the men would win 99.8% of the time. It’s not a fun fact, but it’s still a fact.