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Dylan
Like many others of my generation, I have always appreciated the music and poetry of Bob Dylan. Thus, I was pleased last year when English bookies were giving 5 to 1 odds that Bob Dylan was going to get the Nobel Prize for literature. He didn’t get it! I was somewhat disappointed and while I [...]
Continue reading...5. December 2009
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Video Interview: Found on Youtube
Somebody brought this video to my attention. It was filmed when I spoke at Cincinnati Zoo sometime in the spring of this year. It’s not bad. The interviewer was very sympathetic to animals and conservation. We need more like her. She was charming and articulate. She also gave me a Curious George stuffed toy to [...]
Continue reading...22. September 2009
Photos Tell the Story of Borneo Blazes being Fought by OFI
They say that a photo is worth a thousand words. Here is the equivalent of a few thousand words: photos of the fires that OFI is facing and fighting in 2009. The extreme droughts that enable human-made fires to blaze throughout Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo) and Sumatra seem to be much more frequent than they ever used to be. The last El Nino was in 2006 when over 50 of our OFI assistants fought the fires for almost two months before the fires were brought to a stop.
Continue reading...22. September 2009
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OFI Guardposts guard the Park against Fire and other Threats
Please take a look at the map in the previous post! You will see that only one post on the boundary on the eastern side of the Park is threatened by fire. Our guardposts are the little blue figures while the red spots need no explanation. Those are the fires burning at the [...]
Continue reading...17. August 2009
Blogging – Interrupted
I haven’t blogged for over a month, but goodness knows, I have tried. Being in the field all this time in Kalimantan made it virtually impossible to have internet connections. Putative swine flu felled three of the volunteers on the first OFI team at the end of July and they were quarantined for [...]
Continue reading...2. July 2009
Return to Indonesia: Meeting the Governor in Palangka Raya
Shortly after my arrival in Jakarta I was told (in typical local fashion) that we had an appointment to meet with the Governor of our province, Kalimantan Tengah (Central Indonesian Boneo) in two days’ time. The appointment was at one o’clock in a suite at a hotel in Palangka Raya, the provincial capital, where the Governor [...]
Continue reading...2. July 2009
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More views of Jakarta, Indonesia’s City of Dreams, and Cats
Jakarta, like most cities in developing countries, is very much a city of contrasts with mansions in Pondok Indah rivalling those in Beverly Hills, California, and slums in south Jakarta reminiscent of Calcutta. It is also noisey, gritty, smoggy, and sweaty. But it still has some of the nicest people in the world. You just [...]
Continue reading...About the Author
Scientist, conservationist, educator: for almost four decades Dr. Biruté Mary Galdikas has studied and worked closely with the orangutans of Indonesian Borneo in their natural habitat, and is today the world’s foremost authority on the orangutan.Latest Flickr photos
- Cortney: As usual, beautifully descriptive and full of imag...
- Cortney: As usual, beautifully descriptive and full of imag...
- Barbara R Harsh: Dr. Birute, Thank you for being so gracious to r...
- drbirute: Thank you for your warm and kind words. Your word...
- drbirute: I just got off the plane 24 or so hours ago after...
23. March 2012
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