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.
Here’s another black-crested macaques. They’re found only on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia in Tangkoko National Park and they are critically endangered. I went to the island specifically to photograph these monkeys and was able to spent several hours surrounded by them in the forest. This guy seemed a little confused.
The adolescent orangutans were my favorites because of their curiosity. I was face down on the ground photographing the little bearded pigs when this guy came along. He was swinging on a vine, at first swatting at the pigs. When I got up to take a few photos, he started swinging toward me, getting closer with each swing. All of a sudden he reached out to tap me gently on the head. He did this a few times, and tapped me a few times on the chest too. Then he would sit back in the tree and sniff his finger. He seemed fascinated with my bald, sweaty head.
Black-crested macaques are quite possibly my favorite type of monkey — even though this guy swatted me in the head a split second after I took this photo. They are listed on the IUCN Red List (International Union For Conservation of Nature) as critically endangered, which is the final category before extinction. They live only on the northern tip of the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia and are the reason I set aside a couple of days and made the effort to visit Sulawesi and Tangkoko National Park. The island isn’t visited by very many tourists and those who do go are usually there for the scuba diving. Despite conservation efforts, their numbers have been in steady decline due to hunting for bush meat and habitat destruction. I saw this first hand as we followed a group of the macaques for several hours and ended up in a section of the forest recently burned illegall, by local farmers to clear the way for planting. Much more on these guys to come.
This is an agile gibbon, also known as a black-handed gibbon. Like orangutans, chimps, gorillas, bonobos and humans, gibbons are classified as apes (the lack of a tail is primarily what makes an ape an ape and separates them from monkeys and lemurs). Gibbons don’t get full ape status, however, and are known as lesser apes. They have extremely long arms and are very fast and acrobatic in the trees. This particular gibbon was quite bold and very friendly and I was able to photograph him at close range with a wide angle lens.
We use cookies to enhance your experience while using our website. If you are using our Services via a browser you can restrict, block or remove cookies through your web browser settings. We also use content and scripts from third parties that may use tracking technologies. You can selectively provide your consent below to allow such third party embeds. For complete information about the cookies we use, data we collect and how we process them, please check our Privacy Policy