Curious sykes

Originally uploaded by furtwangl

This morning we went our separate ways - Lyanda went with a group on a hike, and Claire was put to work on a project making paper mache balloons to hide food in, for the monkeys they are rehabilitating for release. So I decided to wander the little forest trail here in search of the property’s two resident troops - sykes monkeys and colobus monkeys. The colobus troop had come earlier, sitting right outside the house in the tree above the driveway (see photos), and then heading off across the property but not before affording me a quick shot of their new baby. But then, after some quiet walking, I found the sykes monkey troop in the forest, and watched them in a baobab tree with my binoculars for 15 or 20 minutes as they fed on leaves and chattered to each other and peeked down at me.

I was completely happy, but eventually my arms grew tired of holding up the binoculars. So I put them down for a moment, turned to stretch my neck, and this is what I found on a branch directly behind me, almost within arms reach. Primate observing primate observing primates. And none too shy either, happy to keep watching as I took out my camera, and took several portraits, before climbing up into the tree with the rest of the troop, and swinging away out of view.

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