Slated to premier in April Born To Be Wild is a 3-D IMAX movie promoted as a documentary of efforts to save orangutans of the Borneo rainforest and elephants of the Kenyan savannah. If you caught Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in an IMAX theater you may have already seen the trailer for Born to Be Wild. If not, you can see it on YouTube. The movie is narrated by Morgan Freeman.

The orangutan portion of the movie focuses on the conservation efforts of Dr. Birute Galdikas, who is to orangutans as Jane Goodall is to chimpanzees. Starting out in the early 1970’s as a graduate student researcher in Borneo as part of a project organized by Kenyan paleontologist Louis Leakey, Galdikas has become a world-renowned orangutan expert and advocate.

She founded the Orangutan Foundation International headquartered in Los Angeles, CA. The OFI promotes the preservation of the Indonesian rainforest and the rescue and rehabilitation of orangutans.

If you love the beautiful photographs of orangutans in the current Zoobooks Orangutans, then this may be a movie for you. In advance, you can learn more about Dr. Galdikas’ life in her memoir, Reflections of Eden.

The elephant conservation story in Born To Be Wild is that of Dame Daphne Sheldrick and her work with the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust to save Kenya’s elephants and rhinos.  Her memoir is scheduled to come out in spring 2012.