Primates

Images of primates from Tanjung Puting National Park, Indonesian Borneo. Tanjung Puting is home to some spectacular species, but little can touch the charisma of the primates. Orangutans are fantastic to see, and little can beat the sight of truly wild orangutans in the field. At the same time, the feeding station at Camp Leakey allows close observation of habituated individuals. It was here that I first saw males fighting (Kusasi losing his dominance to Tom) and individuals making umbrellas from leaves to shelter from the rain.

The probsocis monkeys are a real speciality of Tanjung Puting, and along with troops of long-tailed macaques are seen feeding in trees along the riverbanks. In the morning, the alarm call is the shrieking of gibbons, but these are rarely seen. Together, these four species are the primates that a visitor to Tanjung Puting should expect to experience, and each provides very different insights into the dilemmas facing conservation biologists.