When I was going through my gorilla shots last night, I came across this image of a black and white colobus monkey that I had originally overlooked. I like shots like this that show a lot of the animal’s environment — in this case a giant tree in Kibale National Park. Kibale is well known for its primates and is home to thirteen different species, including chimpanzees.
Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/200th of a second

This is an old one that has yet to be posted to the blog. It’s from my gorilla and chimp tracking trip to Uganda back in March of 2009. At times it was very difficult to get clean looks at the gorillas in the thick forest, but all the foliage also provided nice framing when a gorilla’s head suddenly popped into a clearing. This guy was staring up at a silverback who was high in a tree.
Nikon D700 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 200mm) ISO 800, f/2.8 at 1/100th of a second (-1/3 stop ev)

This one is from Uganda in Queen Elizabeth National Park. One of the great things about many of the Ugandan parks is that you’re allowed to get out of your safari vehicle and hike. I was on foot when we came across this herd of hippos in a large bend in the river (a hippo herd is also known as a bloat or crash). This particular hippo wasn’t all that pleased to see me there so I took a few quick photos and got on my way.

Part of my trip to Uganda several years back included a day of chimpanzee trekking in Kibale National Park. It was somewhat difficult to photograph the chimps that day because they were so high up in the trees and there was a white sky in the background. I was able to get several okay shots, however, when there was enough foliage to fill the frame. This lady (at least I think she’s a lady) was busy eating fruits when she took a glimpse back to see what all the clicking was about.

This was the dominant silverback gorilla in the troop that I saw in Uganda. There was a younger silverback in the troop as well, and eventually he will challenge for the top spot. When this happens, the troop will probably split in two, with each silverback taking roughly half the members. There are only 700 mountain gorillas left in the wild in Uganda, the Congo and Rwanda.

This is a male red-chested sunbird that I photographed in Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda.  The long curved bill is used to extract nectar from flowers. Uganda is one of the best places in the world for birding due to its fortunate geographic positioning between the savannah to the east, the sub-sahara region to the north and the jungle to the west.

It’s been a while since I posted a gorilla shot. Just came across this one of a young male taking a bite out of his friend’s head. Some day, one of these guys might end up the dominant male silver back of his own troop. This was in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest of Uganda.

Red colobus monkeys are one of eight different species of primate that we saw in Uganda. They are listed as critically endangered due to sensitivity to habitat loss. This one was spotted in Kibale National Park in the southwestern corner of the country.

Birds are always a little more amusing when they’re looking directly at you. This is a cattle egret and it was photographed in Uganda. Cattle egrets also occur in the United States and as the name indicates, they’re often found around cattle. Like other egrets and herons, they are primarily wading birds, but they make their way to pastures to pluck ticks and flies from cows and other mammals.