Undaunted

As a young sci­en­tist, Birute Mary Galdikas had a mis­sion: To find and study the elu­sive orang­utans of Bor­neo’s rain for­est to help pro­tect this amaz­ing and elu­sive species.

Fol­low her sto­ry as she car­ries out an epic search and strug­gles to sur­vive while study­ing the world’s most endan­gered great ape. 

When Galdikas saw her first image of an orang­utan in the wild, she was imme­di­ate­ly cap­ti­vat­ed. It haunt­ed her and she found its gaze “almost hyp­not­ic.” She moved to Bor­neo, where she made it her life’s mis­sion to study and work to pro­tect these mys­te­ri­ous crea­tures. Like pri­ma­tol­o­gists Jane Goodall and Dian Fos­sey, Galdikas was dri­ven by incred­i­ble ambi­tion and a fas­ci­na­tion with apes and human ori­gins, mak­ing her way to the harsh rain forests of Indone­sian Bor­neo when she was just 25 years old. She set up a sim­ple camp, named after her men­tor, Louis Leakey, and pro­ceed­ed to look … and look … and look for wild orang­utans, one of the most elu­sive species on the plan­et. Her stud­ies brought these crit­i­cal­ly endan­gered apes to the world stage, and they are still mak­ing an impact today. Now in her 70s, Dr. Galdikas has con­duct­ed the longest run­ning study of any wild mam­mal by any sin­gle scientist. 

Award-win­ning author Ani­ta Sil­vey explores the life and lega­cy of this incred­i­ble and lit­tle-known pri­ma­tol­o­gist. With unpar­al­leled sto­ry­telling, Sil­vey offers unique insight into Galdikas’ child­hood, her work with Nation­al Geo­graph­ic, her pas­sion of rais­ing aware­ness about con­ser­va­tion, and her mis­sion of secur­ing a future for orangutans.