Readers’ wildlife photographs

May 15, 2016 • 7:30 am

Reader Robert Lang sent some photos of primates from a trip he took to Costa Rica earlier this year. His notes:

We saw a lot of monkeys, but mostly as disconnected parts glimpsed through heavy leaf cover. The mantled howler monkeys (Alouatta palliata), though, eventually came right into the cabin area where we were staying. They certainly lived up to their name, serenading our Caribbean accommodations at the crack of sunrise. It’s hard to describe the cacophony, but imagine dumping a truckload of tennis balls and squirrels into a d*g kennel, and the resulting sound would be a fair approximation. They have wonderfully expressive faces.

howler_monkey_face

howler_monkey_munching

howler_monkey_pensive

howler_monkey

It’s not hard to tell which howlers are males:

howler_monkey_male

howler_monkey_male_closeup

Less easily seen were Geoffroy’s spider monkey (Ateles geoffroyi), who kept more of a distance from us, but were entertainingly acrobatic, leaping between trees and using their tail as a fifth limb.

spider_monkey_1

spider_monkey_2

The third species we saw was the white-faced capuchin monkey (Cebus capucinus), of which I got only one half-decent photo (but plenty of blurry black smears in dense foliage).

white_faced_capuchin

11 thoughts on “Readers’ wildlife photographs”

  1. “…Imagine dumping a truckload of tennis balls and squirrels into a d*g kennel…”

    That is the most accurate and original description I have ever heard for this monkey’s call.

  3. Nice pics! We saw a ton of the capuchins scrambling over the low branches of the trees at the beach in Manuel Antonio. Nary a glimpse of the howlers or spiders.

    1. I saw (and heard) lots of howlers and a few spiders on the Osa Peninsula (sloths, too), and saw a capuchin steal a beachgoers backpack and Manuel Antonio.

  4. Nice pix. Now, if only we could get the OP on text-to-speech, with Philomena providing the voice!

  5. The first picture looks like the monkey is traveling through space-time.

  6. Unless I mistake, Geoffroy’s Spider Monkey Areles geoffroyi is named after Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, friend and follower of Lamarck, who famously debated Georges Cuvier, defending Lamarck’s evolutionary ideas.

  7. Those are very nice. I had earlier chortled appreciatively at the sight of uninhibited monkey balls whilst I drank my morning coffee.

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