Renowned Primatologist Biruté Galdikas Passes Away at 79: A Legacy Remembered

By Ashley Morgan

La primatologue Biruté Galdikas est morte, à l’âge de 79 ans

Biruté Galdikas passed away at the age of 79 in Los Angeles on March 24th, following a lengthy illness, according to an announcement from Vytautas Magnus University in Lithuania, where she was honored with a doctorate.

Born in 1946, this Canadian primatologist dedicated her life to studying and protecting orangutans and their habitat, which has been devastated by deforestation. In 1986, she founded the International Orangutan Foundation and tirelessly fought against the destruction caused by palm oil plantations. She was famously one of the “Trimates,” a trio of women who transformed the study of great apes, alongside chimpanzee expert Jane Goodall and gorilla specialist Dian Fossey.

In December 2025, Biruté Galdikas gave an interview to Decatur Metro, reflecting on her passionate decades-long fight for orangutans in the jungles of Borneo.

In 1971, at the age of 25, she traveled to the Borneo jungles to research these shaggy red-haired apes. Galdikas was the first primatologist to observe orangutans using tools when she saw one break a branch in half to scratch itself. She also demonstrated how these primates help regenerate tropical forests by dispersing seeds.









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