Whilst travelling through China during 1999, I went through the picturesque, misty, Huangshan Mountains. In addition to marvelling at the craggy mountains and rock outcrops, I also had the opportunity to observe and photograph some wildlife at reasonably close range.
Snow monkeys, members of the macaque family, are found in this region and at one location were in the habit of coming down and gathering near a creek where they knew that people scattered loose corn for them.
The monkeys pictured here were part of a troop numbering probably 40 to 50 individuals and included quite a few very young ones. Looking at the image, it’s natural to assume that it’s a mother with its infant, but in fact, the adult pictured is a male.
It seems to be a behavioural characteristic of this species that it’s the males who carry and care for the young. Presumably, this means the young have progressed to the point where they are no longer entirely dependent on their mothers.
The image was originally captured handheld on 35mm colour negative film using a Pentax SF7 with 80-400 mm zoom lens. Very little has been done to the image by way of digital enhancement other than a slight cropping.
This image is part of my China 1999 image gallery.
Does the image look familiar? It may be that you’ve accidentally landed on my 404 page at some point! 🙂 ~KD.