Founder

 

Founder: Leif Cocks

 

Leif

Leif Cocks is the founder and President of The Orangutan Project, an international charity that has raised over $22 million for orangutan conservation since 1998.

Leif also founded: Wildlife Asia, International Elephant Project, International Tiger Project, Forest for People, and is Vice President of the Orang Utan Republik Foundation.

Beginning his career as a, ZooKeeper, Curator and small population biologist at a zoo, Leif has worked hands on with orangutans for more than 30 years, including establishing the most successful breeding colony of orangutans in the world, facilitating orangutan rescues and successfully reintroducing orangutans to the wild, including the first ever zoo-born orangutan.

Leif is highly regarded as a world-renowned expert on orangutans, publishing several papers in peer review journals on orangutans and also serving on numerous boards and technical advisory groups of field organizations.

He is the author of a number of books including Finding Our Humanity and Orangutans My Cousins, My Friends.

In 2019 Leif was awarded the Order of Australia Medal  from the Australian Government, and his university's highest award, the John Curtin Medal, for his dedication to species conservation.

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