Author-photographer Evelyn Gallardo combines a love of travel with her passion for endangered primates. She has worked in Rwanda with gorilla researcher Dr. Dian Fossey, and in Borneo with orangutan authority Dr. Birute Galdikas.
Evelyn Gallardo's fascination with primates stems fromchildhood."My first crush was King Kong. It was an early bonding experience." But it was movies such as Tarzan and Auntie Mame that fueled her love for travel. She has been to Rwanda, Borneo, Kenya, Nepal, India, Mexico, China, Japan, Java, Costa Rico and much of South America where she visited the Galapagos Islands, Macchu Picchu, Iguazu Falls, and hitched cargo boats up the Amazon with her husband and daughter.
Another driving force in this Los Angeles-born author's life is her Mexican-Hopi heritage, "My great-grandparents infused me with a love for our culture." Her current writing projects include a picturebook, Meeting Mama Lipa, poetry, and nonfiction-all based on her heritage. Evelyn studied creative writing and photography at the University of California at Los Angeles. She also teaches a Mexican American Culture Inservice to help educators better understand their students.
Evelyn is on the Board of Friends of Children and Literature (FOCAL), an advisory board member of EarthCamp, and the West Coast Representative of the International Primate Protection League. She is a founding member of the Children's Author's Network, and a member of the Author Guild, Society of Children's Book Writer's & Illustrators, and the Orangutan Foundation International.
Among the Orangutans: The Birute Galdikas Story. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books, 1993.
Endangered Wildlife (Contributing Author) Canada: Ginn Publishing, 1993.
Jane Goodall's Animal World: Gorillas. Contributing Photographer. New York: Atheneum, 1993.
The Dark Romance of Dian Fossey, McGraw-Hill College Textbooks, L.A. Times, Science Magazine, Animal Magazine, GEO, Owl Magazine, Terre Sauvage, PongoQuest, Zoolife, Ranger Rick
The author's television appearances include PBS's "Take Five: Science," "Orangutans: Grasping the Last Branch," "ECONEWS," "Connie Martinson Talks Books," and "Book Beat." Her many radio interviews include National Public Radio and KPWR.
Her book, Among the Orangutans, won the Nueva Award and the John Burroughs Outstanding Nature Book Award for Children in 1994. Evelyn was also the recipient of the 1989 Outstanding Support for Anti-poaching Patrol Award from the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund.
"As orangutans slip into further endangerment due to poaching (mothers are shot in order that babies may be taken as pets) and destruction of their habitat, books such as this may inspire a backdraft of conservation.
. . .
"In brief, well organized chapters and highly readable prose, Gallardo interlaces intriguing observations of orangutans with the life of their patient observer and rehabilitator. The book will rouse readers of all ages not only to curiosity for primates, but also to admiration for those who brave adversity to eke out a larger understanding of the natural environment."
Publishers Weekly, March 22, 1993, Starred.
"The narrative is interesting and entertaining, and provides an excellent resource for anyone wanting to know how orangutans live in their natural environment. The admixture of personal travails experienced over the years of her research and of her observation of the orangutans' behaviour is not told as a dry, scientific recounting of events, but is written more as an adventure story, one that gives insights into orangutans not readily available in other books." Fred Leicester , October 1993.
"The author of Among the Orangutans: The Birute Galdikas Story, Evelyn Gallardo, has witnessed orangutans in their tropical rain forest in Borneo, as well as mountain gorillas in Rwanda, Africa. Gallardo cares about the future of these animals and has targeted this concern into the creation of a great-ape education program for schoolchildren in California.
. . .
"Among the Orangutans: The Birute Galdikas Story would be of particular interest to any young environmentalist who is interested in ensuring that all creatures receive the respect that they deserve from humans and that all living beings should be allotted their specie-specific needs." Susan Swanek In Animals' Voice (Ontario Canada SPCA) Winter 1994.
To arrange television, radio, conference and school appearances contact:
Primate Productions
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Created March 17, 1997