A Monkey’s Eye View

We have a professional wildlife photographer working with Selemat Yaki, a conservation organization based on Manado, visiting Tangkoko for a couple of days.  He is trying to take pictures of the macaques in trees by getting up nearby trees himself.  After a long morning of searching for one of our groups, I went out with him to find a good tree near camp to practice on, partly since I was curious as both a primatologist and an amateur photographer.  I gave it a try myself, though only 2-3 meters off the ground, just past the super big roots of the rao tree- since he’s only got one harness and I have no experience, not smart or safe for me to go out of reach (unfortunately- no second harness means our experienced climber can’t come up and help you if there’s a problem).  (ok, no one freak out- Mom- I’m being careful and only did under supervision of an experienced climber).

Launching the first rope to get your strong climbing rope up is the hard part; the climbing itself isn’t too bad, mostly using your legs (leg strap and ascending clip- lift leg and move clip, then pull you body up by standing again).  Apparently arborists and forestry workers use these techniques.

Even just getting up that short distance was amazing.  The thing about this habitat is that the monkeys really live in a three dimensional world, in a way we really can’t appreciate.  Everything looks different from even a bit off the ground.  The way the light filters down is different, the colors are so vibrant- it’s beautiful and I really want to get higher, even without monkeys nearby (I am not crazy enough to try near animals without proper climbing training anyhow).  I’m going to try and find a course to learn this myself so I can do this when I come back.  I’d love to, oh say, go up by one of the tarsier sleep trees right when they are coming out and watch (and photograph!).  I’d have to get my supervisor’s permission to do near our animals, but oh man would that be cool!  Even if I don’t do near our study animals, plenty of wildlife to see and a nice view!