by Linda Spalding
Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 276 pp., $22.95
A Dark Place in the Jungle is a well-written, high-spirited, behind-the-scenes account of Linda Spalding's experiences trying to chronicle the recent adventures of the latter-day Birut Galdikas, as Galdikas tirelessly studies and tries to save orangutans ("men of the forest") from unrelenting human persecution. It is important for readers to realize that Spalding only began her efforts in the mid-1990s, whereas Galdikas began her work in 1971. This book provides only a snapshot, a short window, of a long and continuing project.
There is no doubt that A Dark Place in the Jungle is highly controversial. Galdikas doesn't emerge as a woman of high character. Spalding experienced numerous frustrations trying to make and maintain contact with the somewhat elusive Galdikas and is candid about what transpired, but I think that Spalding's short-term frustrations were trivial in comparison to the long-term frustrations and disappointments experienced by Galdikas and her co-workers over the past 28 years.
Spalding was told that she was being tested by Galdikas for her loyalty, for loyality was a big thing to Galdikas. The author also faced numerous obstacles in reaching Borneo three times, traveled bad roads to reach the restricted areas of Galdikas's research, and lived there under extremely difficult field conditions. But Spalding's trials and tribulations were well worth the effort, and readers are presented with a good story. We learn about the lives of the orangutans-the incredible importance of motherhood, how they forage, raise their young, travel about their ranges, avoid human persecution, and cry when orphaned-and we learn about the people who study them: those dedicated and complicated souls who literally devote their lives to these pursuits. As readers we are also presented with fine writing about "the remote, unbuttoned wilderness of Tanjung Putting," where Galdikas began her research.
Galdikas is often called Louis Leakey's "third angel" because she followed the first two, Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey, into what became long-term research on difficult-to-study great apes. Goodall studied chimpanzees, and continues her efforts 40 years after her first tentative trek into their worlds; Dian Fossey studied gorillas until she was killed; and Galdikas continues to study orangutans in Borneo. These women have been relentless in their efforts to learn more about our next of kin, the great apes with whom we share large proportions of DNA. (We share 98.4 percent of our genes with chimpanzees, gorillas are 2.3 percent different from both human beings and chimpanzees, and the orangutan is 3.6 percent different from human beings and chimpanzees.)
A Dark Place in the Jungle provides an incredible journey for those who cannot experience the wonderful world of orangutans and of the people who study them. Many of my own students tell me that they want to be like Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, or Birut Galdikas and "go off and study apes and save the world." Most of these students don't know how difficult this work is, the constant devotion the work requires, the immense passion researchers bring to their work, and the energy it takes to overcome opposition to their work. Their work is also physically and emotionally exhausting, and the weak don't succeed. In animal populations they study, individuals with identifiable personalities-animalities may be a better word-often form close mutual binds with the researchers. When these animals die, the researcher must continue.
Consider Akmad, one of the first of many orangutans Galdikas rescued from captivity and returned to the forest. Galdikas wrote in 1998 of "how deeply our lives were linked." Unlike chimpanzees, gorillas, and especially human beings, orangutans don't " … need to endlessly test and reaffirm their relationships … . It had taken me 15 years to understand that for orangutans, a bond once forged is forever." Ah, the importance of loyalty.
Galdikas' research is also dangerous. Not everyone wants to learn more about orangutans. Galdikas' life was in jeopardy as she studied these apes because she was also trying to save them by rehabilitating orangutans that had been orphaned or abused by poachers and timber barons. Galdikas also believes that successful rehabilitation requires contact with surrogate mothers, whereas the government favors keeping orphans in cages, separated by peer group, until they are released deep in the forest.
A Dark Place in the Jungle raises many difficult questions that will force readers to come to terms with the complex interrelationships among all animal life-indeed all life-on this planet. We need to listen to other animals and attempt to understand them. We shouldn't impose our ways on them for selfish, anthropocentric ends. We can benefit from listening, learning, and understanding each and every creature's view of their own worlds. We can expand our own horizons by including all animals in our hearts, by informing all of our actions with deep feelings of respect and compassion.
Human beings are fortunate to share this planet with such wonderful animals.
We are fortunate to have the work of Galdikas, Fossey and Goodall to help us learn from the great apes. Despite the fact that there is still a long and rough road to travel, change is in the wind. We should see ourselves as partners with all animals in a joint venture. We can no longer be at war with the rest of the world, enduring on an island in this intimately connected universe. If we learn to take animals seriously, we can study and understand their points of view. What we learn will be important to further interactions between human beings and other animals.
If we fail to understand that other animals are part of our world, and we do not see the many levels upon which we interact, and if those interactions falter, the animals will be set apart from-and inevitably below-the humans. I'm sure that humans will feel the loss far more than those animals who survive. The interconnectivity and spirit of the world will be lost forever and these losses will impoverish the universe. Galdikas' research clearly demonstrates that a world without non-human animals would be a dreadful one at that.
All in all, A Dark Place in the Jungle is a book that will raise eyebrows. Many readers will likely appreciate the honesty with which Spalding recounts her relationship with Galdikas, and one might wonder (but I don't) if the subtitle for the book should have been "Leakey's Fallen Angel." We learn that unpublished Indonesian government reports purportedly accuse Galdikas of holding orangutans in cruel and unhealthy conditions, and of mismanaging money. I hope that Galdikas will have a chance to respond to these charges. Until then, it is difficult to draw final conclusions from this short study of Galdikas, who has spent more than 28 years in Borneo studying the dynamics and the diverse personalities of orangutans with competing agendas. Little will be gained by declaring her already fallen.
Marc Bekoff is a professor of organismic biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He is the author of many books and articles, and edited the Encyclopedia of Animal Rights and Animal Welfare.
