It is difficult to imagine the con-troversial primatologist Birute Galdikas extolling the virtues of the digital age―but she does. Thirty-one years into her crusade to save the orangutans of Borneo from extinction, she is more at home hundreds of miles from civilization, armed with a notebook, a ballpoint pen and a 35mm camera, squatting in the jungle to listen for the movements of an antisocial ape hiding high in the rain forest canopy. Galdikas, 56, is tall and heavyset, with an unkempt mane of graying hair and thick, unfashionable glasses. Her work is believed to be the longest continual study of these rare and reclusive primates. Only 20,000 orangs are believed to exist, according to Galdikas, confined to the wilds of Indonesia and Malaysia. Yet among primatologists, the reputation of Galdikas (pronounced GAL-dee-kas) is spotty at best. She says she has published over 50 articles, but most of her research papers depend on data collected in the early 1970s.
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