Auckland Zoo – Titirangi Storyteller

Baboons live in Paradise

If I was a baboon, this is where I would want to live. Hmmm… I’m pretty sure I’m not a baboon (though there are those who might disagree, I’m sure) but I think I would still like to live here.

Coupla squirrel monkeys playing in a palm tree. I suppose Peanut the Monkey might have been more tolerable if he could have played in the trees year-round. But half the year he was stuck indoors… I wonder if I would like him more today if I ran into him again.

Mournful Gibbon

It’s been a while since I posted a shot of my primate friends. This is Kera a Siamang gibbon who’s just moved into the Auckland Zoo with her partner, Iwani… She’s a tree living gibbon, native to Sumatra, Malaysia and Thailand – one of my favourite corners of the world. I’ll be heading off toContinue reading “Mournful Gibbon”

Meerkat Days

Meerkat Days – we’ve all had ’em. The kind of days when all you can do is sit and watch. But nothing you can really do… I like watching meerkats watch.

If only I were on safari

I admit this one is more than a bit inspired by David Lloyd’s Flick of the Tail shot, which was honoured in this years Wildlife Photographer of the Year. But it’s not so much the elephant’s tail as that this elephant’s tail is at our local zoo, and Lloyd’s giraffe tail shot was done onContinue reading “If only I were on safari”

Lookouts

It’s been at least a month since I posted an image of a monkey – way past due… I love the determined and utterly serious faces of these two cotton top tamarin monkeys on the watch…

Sweet Monkey Love

Spider monkeys… one fell in love with my mother once – at the Catskill Game Farm when I was about 12. He remembered her the next few times we went back and held her hand through the bars for hour. It was kind of sweet. And kind of sad. And kind of icky. I wonderContinue reading “Sweet Monkey Love”

Keeping watch

Meerkats… everyone loves them. They’re just so watchful. Funny thing how they watch and watch and I wonder what it is they are watching for – because they don’t give a gosh-darned hoot that I’m there all human and smelly and snapping away with my camera the way humans do…

Charisma or intimidation?

Their voices are calm. They do not threaten. In fact, they might be as gentle as a lamb – and yet, you would not consider disobeying them. Do they inspire fear or are they merely charming? My 5th Grade teacher, Mrs Ottman; Sister Rose Andrew, who was actually rather terrifying… and occasionally, I hear –Continue reading “Charisma or intimidation?”