Here’s another shot of a dwarf cuscus from Sulawesi in Indonesia. Not much bigger than a squirrel, these animals are marsupials and the largest member of the possum family. When first discovered, the cuscus was thought to be a monkey because of the way it moves through the trees with its prehensile tail.
When it wasn’t raining in Sumatra, which was rare, there were tons of butterflies along the river. Here, a couple of different species were flying around together. The one on the right is called a Lesser Jay while the one on the left is a Malayan zebra.
This is the one guy you don’t want to mess with. He ‘s the dominant male orangutan at Camp Leakey in Tanjung Puting National Park in Indonesian Borneo. When he appeared out of the forest after being gone for a few weeks, the other males ran, the females vied for his attention, and the humans that worked in the area all got a little nervous.
I spent a couple of hours with the black-crested macaques as they moved through the forest. The little ones, like this guy, were curious at first, but before long forgot I was there.
I usually don’t post on Saturday but I’m testing out a few things on the blog. Apparently a lot of gmail, yahoo and hotmail subscribers aren’t receiving posts. Hopefully this goes through. Another agile gibbon from Borneo. This one really shows just how long these guy’s arms are.
They start the training early to be an elephant handler in Sumatra. These kids are born into the business and grow up with the young elephants. I’m usually not a trained/domesticated animal guy, but as I mentioned earlier, there definitely seems to be a strong relationship and respect between the people of Tangkahan and their elephants.
The spectral tarsier is another small mammal from the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia. This one actually is a primate — one of the smallest on the planet. To put it in perspective, these guys are bigger than a mouse but smaller than the average squirrel. They are nocturnal and emerge from cavities in trees at dusk. It was actually quite dark when I took this shot but I used a tripod and a long exposure to get the shot using the available light. There are three types of tarsier species. The other two live on Borneo and the Phillipines and their eyes are even bigger than this guy’s.
One of the few highlights of my week in Sumatra, Indonesia was the day I got to ride a “domestic” elephant. Not a great way to take photographs, but something different to do. The elephants seem to be happy enough and the handlers apparently treat them well and have a good relationship with them. I didn’t see anything to indicate otherwise. Every day after trekking, they get washed in the river and seem to really enjoy it as they roll over for the rub down.
Another beetle that I have no idea how to identify. This one was taken at a place called Tangkahan in Sumatra, Indonesia early one morning before the sun was up. If you look close, you can see a baby riding on the mother’s back (at least I assume that’s a baby).
Yet another from Tangkoko National Park in Sulawesi, Indonesia. I went with a wide angle for this one to capture the forest environment where these monkeys live — and in this case, rest.