Apes

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                      APES

Birute Mary Galdikas has studied about apes for 40 years and more.

These apes are endangered species that live in the rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra, ( Islands on the South East of Asia )

The famous anthropologist Louis Leakey was the one who helped her begin her studies about orangutans in Borneo. (Louis also taught Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey )

Birute Mary Galdikas was interested in animals and their behaviour even before she went to kindergarten. When Birute Mary was 7 yrs old she wanted to become a explorer. She really wished that she could go to the jungles and learn about these early ancestors of ours, the orangutans.She says that in those days books were the only place that had information so she loved reading books about great apes.

Birute Mary Galdikas founded the orangutan Foundation in 1986 to help protect orangutans. These orange animals are endangered because rainforests are destroyed in a fast rate. All tropical rain forests are being destroyed ! But, it appears that the orangutans homes are destroyed faster than we thought.

Rain forests in Africa were protected by isolation and war, in Democratic Republic of the Congo. People don’t log when there is a war going on. They tend to leave the forest alone. The Amazon forest is so big that you could put the whole of Europe in there. It’s large size is protected to some degree. In Indonesia and Malaysia the rain forests are in extreme danger due to deforestation caused by prospector for palm oil industries. Palm oil is the most useful / common oil in the world. 50% of food in markets contains palm oil.