BOS Canada occasionally hosts events to promote conservation and research relating to orangutans and other primates.
Past Events
2016
Public Lectures:
Dr. Mary Lee Jensvold: “Conversations with Chimpanzees: Transforming our View of Nature”
Dr. Jensvold spoke about her work with chimpanzees who were taught sign-language
2014
Public Lectures:
Dr. Colin Chapman: “Primate Populations are Declining: Climate change and forest dynamics”
Dr. Chapman spoke about his research on how global warming is affecting the red colobus monkeys of Kibale National Park, Uganda.
2012
Public Lectures:
Dr. Kristin Andrews: “Do Apes Read Minds?”
Dr. Kristin Andrews spoke about her new book Do Apes Read Minds? Toward a New Folk Psychology (MIT Press 2012). Kristin talked about how humans are more like orangutans than we might think!
2010
Public Lectures:
Dr. Anne Russon: Where the wild orangutans are: New hopes for wild orangutans in Kutai National Park, E Kalimanta.
Dr. Russon spoke about her wild orangutan research and conservation project.
Dr. Paul Vasey: If sex is for reproduction, why is there so much non-reproductive sex?
Dr. Vasey spoke on his long-term work on sexual behavior in wild Japanese macaques and in humans. Work like this is important because it concerns natural primate behavior and aims to explore the biological bases for sexuality in humans and related species.
2009
Public Lectures:
Dr. Crickette Sanz: Securing the Future of Great Apes in the Congo Basin: Conserving Chimpanzees and Gorillas in the Goualougo Triangle, Republic of Congo
Dr. Sanz co-directs the Goualougo Triangle Ape Project, with David Morgan, in Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park, Republic of Congo. Launched in 1999, GTAP involves long-term research and conservation to address major threats to chimpanzees and western lowland gorillas in the Congo Basin—disease epidemics, commercial bushmeat hunting, and mechanized logging. Her research focuses on behavioral ecology, chimpanzee tool technology, and great ape conservation.
Dr. Rob Shumaker: The Show Must Not Go On: Ending Orangutans in Entertainment
(cosponsored with Zoocheck Canada)
Dr. Shumaker is a resident scientist at the Great Ape Trust of Iowa, which aims to provide the best possible care for great apes in captivity. Mainly due to Dr. Shumaker’s efforts, the Trust brought an end to the use of orangutans in entertainment in the USA just a few months before his lecture. This is considered a landmark achievement in ending the inappropriate treatment of orangutans and one with wide-reaching implications. The event raised several thousand dollars, including a special donation of $5000 to enable high-quality sanctuary care for ex-entertainment orangutans.
2008
Public Lectures:
Dr. Anne Russon, Close Encounters with the Red Ape
Dr. Serge Wich, specialist in orangutan social behavior and ecology, spoke about his new research on the southernmost orangutan population in Sumatra.
Other events:
Missing orangutan mothers
Mother’s Day table at the Toronto Zoo, highlighting the illegal pet trade, which kills wild orangutan mothers to steal their infants. 2008
Orangutan awareness weekend
Aug 8-10, 2008 Indomalaysia pavilion, the Toronto Zoo.
2007
Photo Exhibit:
BOS Canada exhibited 35 orangutan photographs at the Elevator Digital Gallery, Toronto. Aims were to heighten awareness of orangutans and their situation and to raise funds for orangutan support efforts in Borneo. The exhibit attracted over a hundred visitors and raised over $2,500. We were especially pleased to welcome several well
known photographers and representatives of the Indonesian Consulate in Toronto.
Special thanks to Elevator Digital for donating gallery space and several framed photos, support, and advice.
Public lectures:
Dr. Frans de Waal
Dr. de Waal is Director of Living Links at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center. He spoke about how learning about the great apes can help us better understand humans.