Thursday, April 8, 2010

A Troop of Spiders

Ok ok, I'm aware there are better monkey pictures out there -- a LOT better. But bear with me since this was such a great opportunity to get any sort of photograph at all. Usually monkeys are high in the treetops and often shaded by vegetation. This tends to make them dark blobs in photos unless you have an excellent flash or zoom or other feature that I clearly don't have on my tiny pocket camera.

So we were walking on the far Punta de Cacao road on the Gallon Jug Estate after checking the remote camera, as a matter of fact. Gorgeous sunny morning and these monkeys got all excited when we passed by. Or more accurately, I think it was when our small white dog (previously of interest to tayras, see 2 February 2010 post) trotted by. Said small dog is generally blase with wildlife which she mostly takes in stride. That said, monkeys get her all excited. From her vast height of 13" she gazes into the treetops 60-80' overhead and woofs at them.

The monkeys normally respond by shaking branches, jumping up and down and throwing things. Sometimes they urinate or defecate with uncanny accuracy. Our cue to keep moving.

The photo above features part of a fairly large troop of spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi), about 8 individuals with at least 3 mamas with clinging babies. They gave us quite a show up away up there in the treetops with their entertaining antics, a photo op I couldn't resist.

4 comments:

  1. I like your photo Carolyn. It gives a sense of that frenetic energy that a troop of excited monkeys has. I wonder if your little dog had ideas about playing with them, or if she just needed to say hello.

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  2. Great story Carolyn. It sure is fun watching the spider monkeys swing through the treetops. And, we know first hand how accurate they can be with their "droppings".

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