I have never seen an animal behaving in such a human like way as here. It sat here for quite while looking at the passing crowds at the Ajanta cave in India, and by using the ropes he clearly was relaxing, enjoying his comfortable positioning.

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I yesterday remembered this picture from the black crested north sulawesi macaque. It was shot in Tangkoko National park, and they are truly wild animals. The black crested macaque is endangered, and in this park they protect them. I was here while I was volunteering in a program (at tasikoki animal rescue center), where there are also black crested macaques, that have been confiscated by the police from illegal trading, and from people that keep them as pets. Since then I am a volunteer for Masarang International who helps through fundraising (www.masarang.nl) and financing reforestation projects.

I consider this shot still as my best animal pic, and it was a complete lucky shot. Lucky because I used flash, which is normally a horrible device in tropical rainforest.

Here this macaque is being groomed by another macaque, and therefor he is not really looking at me, but somewhere into the ....?

Tags:   Indonesia Sulawesi Macaca Nigra black crested macaque Tangkoko wild outdoors monkey reservate national park EarthNatureLife Simply Superb FlickrElite top-f50 (50-74 faves) “flickrTravelAward” NGC

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I have a few heroes. Frans de Waal and Frans Lanting are two of them. Frans Lanting is one of the best nature photographers, who won many awards, and Frans de Waal is one of the leading primatologists in the world, who's books I can recommend to everybody who wants to know something about our closest relatives, the Bonobo and the Chimpansee. As a young biology student I attended a college given by de Waal, before he went to America to become a professor.

De Waal and Lanting made a wonderful book about the Bonobo (Bonobo, the forgotten ape), the most elegant great ape IMO, and the pictures there were very inspirational. So when Ouwehand Zoo started a Bonobo group, I went and tried to make a few nice shots of which this is one.

Although I am not completely happy with the whole series (and I probably have to go back) I like this portrait of a young Bonobo who more or less is in deep thought.

Tags:   bonobo zoogdier animal great ape zoo Rhenen Netherlands the Netherlands outdoor outdoors great ape mammal ethology nature portrait sony wimvandem GoldDragon COTH coth5 Sunrays+5 Nature Through The Lens ALittleBeauty

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