Customer Reviews

A Dark Place in the Jungle: Following Leakey's Last Angel into Borneo

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This book deserves credit for pointing out the mistakes made by Galdikas in Tanjung Puting National Park.
These include swarming a natural habitat with tamed apes that can never become wild again but pass on human diseases to the wild population and outcompete them for food in the area.
It also reveals how OFI "volunter-programs" and "study tours" were little more than overpriced package tours for naive animal lovers, simply aimed at making cash.
In that respect, it is a real eye-opener which is also very accessible to the general reader.
In fact the publication of this book has already caused OFI/Galdikas to address some of the issues publicized in it!
Thus the author has probably achieved more than the she had hoped for.

On the downside I found it somewhat poorly-researched.
It is obvious that Spalding knows very little about the culture, fauna, and conservation issues of Indonesia.
She seems also rather naive - all information obtained from Indonesians on her short trips to Borneo is taken at face-value.
The book is also quite unbalanced - Galdikas is put in an all negative light, ignoring the postive aspects of her long work in the area.
Finally, I also found the book too personal - Spalding speaks way too much about herself, which has bored me though may interest others...

For those with a serious interest in the issues raised in this book I recommend reading Our Vanishing Relative: The Status of Wild Orangutans at the Close of the Twentieth Century by H. D. Rijksen & E. Meijaard which is a professional summary of everything that has to do with the conservation of these great apes.

About a year ago, I tried to sort out all the orangutan advocacy organizations, what they were doing, where the money was going, and what they were accomplishing. I sent a short questionnaire to almost two dozen organizations around the world -- and only two answered my questions. OFI sent this email response: "WHO ARE YOU?"

I should have read this book instead. Linda Spalding's exploration of Borneo -- and the people who work and volunteer there -- explains so much. Her research on Birute Galdikas and Orangutan Foundation International explains more.

I realize that some people are looking at this book for more info on orangutans. Spalding may not be the best author for that. But she excels in taking the reader through her search for the real Birute Galdikas.

I could not put the book down, and read it over two days. Spalding's "follow" of Birute reminded me of my own confusion about why the orangutan advocacy and protections organizations are so splintered. Slowly, over the course of a couple of years and many efforts to talk to Birute, Spalding discovers the jealousies, the ineptitude, the power struggles, and the egos that are hobbling the struggle to save wild orangutans from extinction.

Spalding ends the newest edition of the book with a list of hopeful developments, especially with Dr. Willie Smits and Lone Droscher-Nielson. Unfortunately, while these two individuals are doing great work [...] the orangutan advocacy community has splintered even more in the six years since that postscript.

I think it's time for Spalding to do another book on the subject. I'd be glad to give her the emails I received from several of the orangutan/conservation organizations in (non)response to my questions about what they were accomplishing.