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Would you like to have your name on our
If you have made a difference for the Indonesian
rainforest and orangutans please email us at
saveorangutans137@hotmail.com with your first
name and story or click on and fill out the Contact Us
page. We'll post it for everyone to see!
If you are donating money you can consider donating
to Orangutan Foundation International (www.orangutan.org)
(If you are under the age of 18 please have a parent or other
adult help you.)
NEWS UPDATE!!
Please check out the News/Projects link for projects that you can help with!
Why should we care about orangutans? What's so important about conserving our rainforests?
Orangutans are an ape. There are two types of orangutans, Sumatran and Kalimantan. They range from a color of light ginger to dark cinnamon. They share 97% of our DNA. Orangutans are only found in Indonesia on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra. So why are they worth saving? Well, they're so eerily human, just look into their eyes. How could you let them become extinct??? We HAVE to save them! There are 3 major reasons why the orangutans are becoming endangered.
1. Rainforest Destruction
2. Palm Oil Plantations
3. Illegal Pet Trade
1. Rainforest destruction has wiped out lots of the rainforest. It kills the whole ecosystem. When the trees are removed and the land is cleared, it leaves a dry wasteland. So in addition to killing all those plants and animals it leaves the land useless.
2. Palm Oil Plantations are becoming very popular due to increased demands of palm oi. Rainforest is burned and palm seed is planted. Many products now have palm oil because it is trans-fat free. What companies do NOT mention is it promotes heart disease and raises cholesterol levels. If animals enter the plantations looking for food, they are shot by the workers. Palm oil is often found in crackers, pastries, cereals, popcorn, shortening, baked goods and candles. Guess what?!!!! Everyone buys Girl Scout cookies but they have palm oil in them! So the next time you bite into one of those Thin Mints or Peanut Butter Patties you are killing orangutans! Approximately, 2,500 orangutans die each year because of the destruction of the rainforest for palm oil.
3. There is high demand in the illegal pet trade on the black market for orangutans. In some parts of the world is a sign of status to have a captive orangutan in your home. A baby orangutan can be sold up to $60,000 on black markets. In order to capture a baby orangutan, the mother has to be shot because an orangutan mother is very protective. Out of every 3 orangutans captured, only 1 survives the stress and inhumane conditions.
Our names are Madison and Rhiannon. We are 13 and are Cadette Girl Scouts. We attend Greenhills School in Ann Arbor, Michigan. We are working with the Service Learning program which is the umbrella for Roots and Shoots, Jane Goodall's association for young people, at our school to help educate our school and community about orangutans and palm oil. Our school has been very helpful in supporting us with all of our efforts. We are working on our Silver Award, the second highest Girl Scout award, having completed our Bronze Award. We have to do a large service project showing we care about our planet. We both have the love for orangutans and the Indonesian rain forest so we are trying to educate kids and adults and earn money to donate to various orangutan organizations. This website is dedicated to educating kids and showing them how they can make a difference!
Dr. Galdikas is a scientist, conservationist and educator. She has studied orangutans for over 30 years. Her inspiration and love for orangutans started with her first library book, at age 6, Curious George. By second grade, she decided to be an explorer. She was born in Lithuania and the end of World War II. She spent her childhood years in Canada and moved in the USA in 1964.
At the University of California, she began studying natural sciences. In 1966, she got her bachelors degree in psychology and zoology. In 1969, she got her masters in anthropology. After graduating she met Kenyan anthropologist Dr. Louis Leaky and shared with him her desire to study orangutans. At firs,t he refused to give her funding but after 3 years of persuasion she convinced him to give her funding to study orangutans.
In 1971, Dr. Galdikas and her husband, Rod Brindamour, a photographer were sent to one of the world's last wild places, Tanjung Puting Reserve on the island of Borneo in Indonesia. They had no electricity there. Before she left the USA, professors and others, told her it could not be done, she couldn't study orangutans in the wild. In Borneo, after a year, she set up "Camp Leaky" named after her funder. She began documenting the ecology and behavior of orangutans.
She has given out many materials and lectured about the orangutans and its habitats to citizens of Indonesia and across the globe. To support her work at "Camp Leaky" and to help orangutans, she and her former doctoral student Dr. Gary Shapiro, set up the Orangutan Foundation International in 1986. From March 1996 to March 1998, she served as the Senior Advisor to Indonesia's Ministry of Forestry on orangutan issues.
In June 1997, she became the first person of non-Indonesian birth and one of the first women to receive the "Kalpataru" award, which is the highest awarde given by the republic of Indonesia for amazing environmental leadership. Her biography is called Reflections of Eden.
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