Monkey Photography from the Amazon

[reptileexperts]

Alright guys, slowly trying to post some updates from my recent trip across the equator, and share some of the nicer shots. The amazon was a brutal place for photography where you constantly are fighting rain, extreme low light conditions, and very skittish animals that want to stay hidden from far away. On the ever so nice occasion though, I would have monkey encounters that definitely helped make things enjoyable for photography aside from the birds (another post - don't want these to be insane long). I stayed at the Napo Wildlife Center in Yasuni National Park, and spent 5 days here birding, herping, and shooting photography. This is one of the best places to see primates in Ecuador, where 10 species can be seen in this one plot of land with care. Of these I was able to view 7 species!

- Red Howler Monkey
- Noisy Night Monkey
- Golden-Mantled Tamarin
- Dusky Titti Monkey
- White-fronted Capuchin
- Common Squirrel Monkey
- Wooly Monkey

All but the Night Monkeys were new for me to see / photography (the Dusky and Squirrel monkeys were unfortunately not photographed but seen only). So without further reading required here we go:


Red Howler Monkey gazing down at us from above


then another lays on a branch watching


mmm no comment. . . but some things aside... this is a fantastic shot IMO


Golden Mantled Tamarin are an endangered species, and only found in Yasuni National Park, no where else in the world, has them wild.


And another one looks over from the top of a tree


Wooly Monkeys, were once the most common species found in the amazon, but natives have over hunted them, completely removing this species from certain stretches. We were fortunate to find a total of 4 during my searching, this one was carrying it's young.


Only saw these guys twice, but were reportedly fairly common. White-fronted Capuchin. Don't let that face trick you. These monkeys will hunt and kill Toucan, other monkeys, and many more.


And lastly my favorite. The Noisy Night Monkey. If you follow National Geographic on Facebook, this image was chosen as the spotting of the week through Project Noah, and posted by National Geographic yesterday evening. It's great to receive that much exposure after all the work that went through for some of these images. This particular image was taken in the rain, standing up in a canoe, hand holding a 700mm F5.6 lens shooting at 1/100 of second, with an ISO of 1600 just to get enough light. But it worked out fantastic!

Hope you enjoyed seeing some of the primates of the Amazon, soon I will get a post together for you guys on the birds of the amazon and Andes mountain range. I will leave you with this one teaser, however.


Toucan Barbet

Cheers

Don't forget you can follow all my photography at www.flickr.com/codyconway and see all these images plus a ton more.