We visited Apenheul Primate Park in Apeldoorn yesterday, where monkeys roam freely among the visitors…
Monkeys are very good pickpockets so visitors are given a monkey proof bag on the way in :-)
My favourite primates are the orangutans, I could spend hours watching them play together, climbing and swinging in the trees and on the ropes…
…and hiding under blankets! ;-)
We saw the wanderoos too. Also known as lion-tailed macaques because of the lion-like tuft of fur at the end of their tails.
Looking at this one, I would say they have a lion-like mane too hehe! ;-) They live in the damp forests of southwest India.
Next, a barbary macaque… mostly living in north Africa; but in Europe you’ll find them on the cliffs in Gibraltar. They’re the only primates in Europe that live freely.
This one was staring up into the blank sky for a while, I’m very curious to know what he was thinking.
The gorillas were well hidden in their forest area so I wasn’t able to photograph them, I did spot a miniature gorilla statue though ;-)
These next three images are of white-faced saki’s; however, only the males have white faces (though sometimes more of a golden-orange colour than white); females are grey-brown. They’re fairly small …and I think they’re cute! ;-)
Female above, and male below.
And mom with a two month old baby (born 9-June).
The baby was so cute; each time mom stopped for a moment it would strain it’s neck to look in all directions.
“After this bridge: free ranging monkeys. Have you closed your monkey proof bag?” ;-)
It’s fascinating to watch monkeys groom each other; they have such a look of concentration on their faces. I caught this white-throated capuchin glancing up at the crowd mid-grooming session.
I think the monkeys in the next three images are spider monkeys – I didn’t see a sign but I’m pretty sure :)
We finished our tour of Apenheul with a visit to the squirrel monkeys. Here, the monkey proof bags definitely come in handy! These monkeys get verrrrry close.
So, do you want to know how I know squirrel monkeys like diamonds?
I had crouched down and was resting my hand on the wall to steady myself. A lady next to me was photographing one of the squirrel monkeys with it’s baby (the one in the photo above) and the monkey kept making a grab for her camera and pulling on the lens cap which was attached to the camera on a cord. I don’t know how successful she was at taking a picture but for sure her children were enjoying the cheekiness of the monkeys!
Another monkey came up close to where my hand was. I didn’t move, I just watched. The cheeky little thing came closer and while holding onto one of my fingers with one hand, it made a grab for my ring with the other! So you see, squirrel monkeys like sparkly diamonds. Nope, it wasn’t having mine!
Hope you enjoyed the monkey post! :-)
Best wishes,
~Natalie
ps. if you like wildlife photography, Apenheul are hosting the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition until the end of September :-)
So, it’s official… I’m in the last year of my twenties – and it’s going to be a great year too! ;-) Just as the clock turned midnight, Heiko (my Husband) came to join me on the sofa to wish me a Happy Birthday – and he had a surprise for me too, a fabulous gift.
It was already past midnight so it was officially my birthday and I was allowed to open it :-)
He handed me a large brown envelope; it was addressed to me but with a friend’s address (so that I couldn’t intercept the mail lol). As I turned the envelope over I saw there was a return address written on the back. But before I had time to blink let alone read it, Heiko had taken the envelope off me to check if it was safe for me to read. I wouldn’t have guessed who the sender was so he gave the envelope back to me.
Inside were letters, photographs, a CD, postcards and… an adoption certificate. A smile spread across my face as I made an attempt to translate the (Dutch) text.
Through the local organisation Stichting SPOTS (Save & Protect Our TreasureS), my wonderful and thoughtful husband has adopted a cheetah in my name, a cheetah named Klein.
For several years we have gifted each other with wildlife adoptions on birthdays and Christmases, but this one is different from the rest. It’s not a yearly adoption with a small fee, it’s not a symbolic adoption either, it’s a REAL adoption. I’m one of 40 adoptive parents for Klein, supporting him his entire life at the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) Namibia. The adoption programme, set up by Stichting SPOTS, helps to care for the resident cheetahs at CCF which in turn, frees up more of CCF’s budget for use on their programmes for the protection of the wild cheetah population. Klein is the 3rd cheetah adopted by adoption parents in the Netherlands.
Are you wondering why his name is Klein? I thought it meant “small” but it doesn’t! In fact, he is far from small, he’s the largest of the male cheetahs at CCF. Klein was born in May 2000 and has two siblings; a brother named Calvin (who unfortunately passed away in 2002), and a sister named Chanel. Therefore, the trio: Calvin, Klein and Chanel. That explains his name a little better, hey? :-)
Klein and his siblings arrived at CCF when they were just one year old following the death of their mother – she was shot on a game farm and afterwards her skin was used to capture the three cubs. When CCF rescued them 3 weeks later, the cubs were in a very poor condition. Thankfully, following an intensive treatment for bleeding stomach ulcers, they recovered completely.
And here he is, now 10 years old:
:-) And now of course, I’m longing to travel to Namibia to visit Klein and all his cheetah friends! Especially after watching the small video clips of him that came in my adoption package! Heiko, thank you sooooooooo very much! I love it! The most perfect birthday gift ever! :-)))))
The day gets better too, I’m just back from spending a wonderful afternoon with my dear friend, Vinita. We indulged in a fabulous pedicure at the Dutch Oriental Spa in Scheveningen and oh boy, what an indulgence! It was the first time I’ve ever had a pedicure and with my ticklish feet I was so worried I was going to giggle and squirm…. which of course I did, but only a little, it was really lovely! Definitely recommend it! Afterwards we had a late lunch on the beach – nope, no spare ribs this time. Surprised you didn’t I?! But we did have ice cream. Unfortunately, they were out of After Eight so I doubled up on the white chocolate instead mmmm ;-)
And now.. Heiko is home from work and we’re about to leave for a behind the scenes visit to Blijdorp Zoo. *happy happy* :-)
ps. thank you to everyone that left such lovely birthday wishes on my Facebook page, I didn’t quite manage to reply to everyone yet, but I will :-)
Yay for Spring! Yesterday, Heiko and I once again visited Blijdorp Zoo; this time for the Vrienden van Blijdorp AGM and the official opening of the new Serval enclosure. What started off as a very foggy morning turned into a beautiful, warm spring day with blue skies and sunshine.
After coffee and cake aka “a gooey chocolate muffin fix” ;-) we headed into the Oceanarium for the AGM. We chose to sit in the second room where the video from the main auditorium is projected, because on our right hand side was a glass wall with a view of the sharks and the large sea turtles which were swimming close by the window. A very nice view!
After the AGM we had drinks with the other members of Vrienden van Blijdorp and then left to have some lunch before the official opening of the Serval enclosure at 14:00.
When we arrived at the Serval enclosure there was already quite a large gathering. Through the glass we could see one of the Servals and nearby the sign for the enclosure was boarded up with wooden planks.
To mark the opening, the wooden planks were removed by Greet and Henk Gerritse and the two Servals were let out into the outdoor part of their enclosure.
Servals are medium-sized African wild cats with beautiful markings, as you can see in these images.
One of the Servals was a little timid and stayed in the same place whereas the second boldly walked around the enclosure finding small cuts of meat to feed on.
This serval knew there was meat nearby, but where was it?
Found it…
Ooooh more meat somewhere here…
mmm ;-)
You can see in the image below that the first serval still had not moved from it’s spot.
Eventually, with it’s body close to the ground, it carefully and slowly crept along the fence line and paused behind a rock, keeping a watch on the crowd of onlookers.
Meanwhile the second one was enjoying all the snacks!
Their new enclosure is so much nicer than their previous space, and so much bigger too :-) Zebra, giraffe and greater kudu occupy the adjacent enclosures and were keeping a close watch on their new neighbours.
All but three of the giraffe were outside and whilst we were there we watched two males necking (fighting). Necking is where each giraffe alternately swings it’s head and hits the other (usually on the rear) with their horns. The longer the neck the heavier the head is and the greater the force in which the giraffe hits the other. The large male, Fehari, had the advantage and the smaller male must surely have ended up with a rather bruised rear!
Inside the giraffe house we saw the baby giraffe, born one week earlier on Easter Saturday. She’s a girl! The keepers have named her Doris. She was hiding behind the partitions and then made a dash for the opposite side of the enclosure and squeezed underneath the far partition out of sight. Below is the only image I was able to get of her.
Hopefully, if the weather cooperates, she will take her first steps outside next week :-)
This time we were also successful in seeing the baby Swamp wallaby! Because of the bright sunlight the light was very contrasty so the wallabies were very difficult to photograph. Here you can see the head of the baby peeping out of the mother’s pouch, hope to get a better photo next time :-)
The young will stay in the mother’s pouch for 8-9 months but will continue to suckle until about 15 months. Look out for them when you visit – they’re opposite the Eagle Owl enclosure, near the wolves.
This is the first time that I also photographed the Vicugna, usually we walk right past them but the light was beautiful and so of course I had to stop to photograph them. They are the smallest of the camel family and are found in the mountains of South America. An interesting fact I read on the sign of the enclosure:
Wool fit for royalty Incas have collected the vicugna’s fine wool for centuries, freeing the animals after shaving them. The wool was only to be used by royalty! When the Europeans arrived, they hunted the vicugna to the brink of extinction. The vicugna was protected in 1974, and their number has risen to 150,000.
Of course, we also saw the polar bears, Erik and Olinka :-)
Hoping (along with a lot of others) that Erik and Olinka will be successful in having polar bear cubs… shame that it did not happen for Erik and Tania.
Hope you enjoyed this post, and a nice Spring weekend :-)
Slowly but surely I’m making progress on my travel journal, which documents our trip to Kenya and Tanzania last month. I’m on the final edit so hopefully I will be able to share it with you soon. In the meantime, I’d like to tell you about our visit to the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (DSWT).
I think the very first time I heard about the DSWT was from the CBBC children’s program ‘The Really Wild Show’ but I can’t be sure as it was a long long time ago when I watched that programme! More recently, I know the organisation from the BBC series ‘The Elephant Diaries‘, and maybe you do too?
Through the zoocrew.eu project, I discovered the website of DSWT and also found they have a Twitter page, and a Facebook Fan Page. They are regularly posting updates and photos of the orphaned elephants and rhinos; the work they are doing is just incredible – go check them out!
When my husband’s birthday came around, I decided to foster an elephant from the DSWT in his name, but when I was browsing the website it was Maalim that stole my heart; a little black rhino, born prematurely and abandoned by his mother. He had just turned one year old and was absolutely adorable in the photos. I couldn’t have picked a more perfect gift. We have LOVED receiving updates on his progress, and if you didn’t already read his ‘Maalim and the Mattress‘ update then you must do. I know I’ve written about it before, but it really is a must-read! :-)
During the planning of our safari adventure to Kenya and Tanzania, it worked out that on our way home we’d be spending a number of hours in Nairobi, Kenya, waiting for the overnight flight back to Amsterdam. If only we could arrive in Nairobi a bit earlier so we could visit the DSWT and see Maalim! It was difficult to arrange because we first had to fly to Nairobi from Ndutu in the Southern Serengeti/Ngorongoro Conservation Area in Tanzania. But Karin, the Director at Wild Times Safaris, worked her magic and with some careful planning we were able to visit the orphanage in the afternoon on our last day. Thank you SO much Karin!
So the day came. Our first plane was late and we had three small flights before we would arrive in Nairobi. We were very nervous as we waited; we absolutely did not want to miss our visit to the DSWT. When our plane landed on the airstrip we both let out a big sigh of relief. Three flights later, all on small aircraft (and the last flight was a very bumpy ride!) we arrived in Nairobi.
We had some time to spare before our appointment at the DSWT so we first visited the Giraffe Centre – but I’ll blog about the Giraffe Centre another time ;-)
The DSWT is adjoined to Nairobi National Park; we entered via the ‘Kenya Wildlife Service’ gate and followed the signs for ‘Sheldrick’. We were so happy to be able to visit and couldn’t wait to meet with the keepers and see the orphaned elephants and rhinos; most of all we couldn’t wait to meet Maalim!
We waited patiently whilst the keepers locked Shida, a large male rhino, in his enclosure. Shida left the Trust two years ago but often comes back to visit. He can sometimes be aggresive so for safety reasons he had to be put in his enclosure before the visitors were allowed into the area.
Little Maalim was the first to appear. He was still so tiny and so cute as well!
It was wonderful to see him and we watched almost in amazement as he happily made his way to his night stable. He knew exactly where to go!
In his stable area, one of the keepers wrapped a blanket around him whilst he greedily drank his milk from a bottle. He was so adorable to watch and we stroked his face just above his upper lip.
Now for a video share:
Look, you can see his mattress :-) he sleeps underneath it with his head poking out one side and his tail out of the other! lol
The elephants were the next to enter their night enclosures and stables. They all walked very close to us and each knew exactly where to go. The very last elephant was little Mawenzi. She literally crept around the corner and slowly and cautiously made her way towards us, then she trundled off to her night stable. When you watch the video you’ll know exactly which one shy Mawenzi is ;-) Meanwhile, we heard a commotion in Olare and Sabachi’s enclosure. They were playing a game of push and shove, you’ll also see this on the video! This time Olare had started it (the one without a blanket on) but one of the keeper’s told us that often it’s Sabachi that’s the “naughty boy”.
Once they had settled we walked over to Olare and Sabachi and stayed with them for a long time. Sabachi was very friendly and came to say hello, waving his trunk in circles and placing it in our hands. He would lift up his trunk and rest it on the top of his head so that we could stoke the underside. He also nudged my hand to find my finger to suck on it! All of the elephants liked to do that, it’s comforting for them. Sabachi put his trunk through a gap in the fence to reach the water trough; we knew what was coming next so we both took a step back. Sure enough, Sabachi squirted water through the gate in our direction – cheeky! He was really quite a character and before long he had my right hand and arm covered in the dust and dirt that he was covered in from his dirt baths.
We asked the keeper why some of them shared an enclosure and others didn’t; Olare and Sabachi are good friends and spend their days together when they are outside their enclosures in the Park. When elephants become good friends they will share the same night enclosure. In June this year, all the elephants in the same row of enclosures as Olare and Sabachi will go to Tsavo National Park to join a wild herd of elephants and once again live in the wild.
Next door to Olare and Sabachi was Dida (you probably heard the two children shouting her name in the video, they were excited to see her!). Though still young she is the oldest female; this makes her the boss and all the other elephants know she has the matriachal role of the group. When she lifted up her trunk we could see two tiny tusks growing; she looked so sweet and adorable! Dida will also be going to Tsavo in June.
We walked accross to visit Malia in another row of stables. She was enjoying some tasty leaves from the tree branch in her stable. Her keeper was telling us that the elephants are very good time keepers. If you are just a minute late with the milk the elephants let you know. The keepers sleep inside the stable with the younger elephants, and if they don’t wake up in time for the morning milk feed, the elephants will steal the blanket off the keeper to wake them up!
When we popped our head through the stable door of Mawenzi, next door to Malia, we found her hiding her head amongst the branches. She didn’t move, even when her keeper called her; apparently she is not nearly this shy when she is out playing with the other elephants in the park.
The guide came over to tell us that we had only five minutes left of our visit so we went to say goodbye to Maalim but his top stable door was now closed. So instead, we peeked in on the youngest elephant, Shukuru. She was only a few months old, still very small with a tiny little trunk and short little legs. So sweet.
Visiting the DSWT was certainly one of the highlights of our trip and totally made our day. Since we’ve returned home, we’re now also fostering Sabachi and Shukuru too. It is a wonderful thing that they are doing there. It must be very special for each of the keepers to be such a big a part of these elephants lives; certainly we wish we were in their shoes.
If you’re interested in fostering an orphaned elephant or rhino, head over to the DSWT website for more information and to learn about their fostering program.
And one last video share:
Founder and Chair of the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, Dr Dame Daphne Sheldrick, reflects on the DSWT’s wildlife conservation projects and how this life saving work is possible only thanks to the charity’s global network of supporters and foster parents.
I have some exciting news to share! Some of you will know that my husband, Heiko, and I are very passionate about wildlife and in an effort to raise awareness for wildlife conservation we set up a website: www.zoocrew.eu Please do stop by to check it out, you’ll find zoo news/reviews, conservation articles, forums and photo galleries. We also have a Facebook fan page and you can follow us on Twitter too :-) But before you go off exploring, let’s first get back to my exciting news, it starts with a short story…
In August 2008, Heiko and I visited the Painted Dog Conservation project in Zimbabwe. Their efforts to educate the local community and involve them in the protection of Africa’s Painted Dogs is just brilliant. We were impressed!
There are very few Painted Dogs (also known as Wild Dogs) remaining in the wild. Being nomadic, they travel great distances, only staying in the same location when they have pups. So when we came across a pack of 24 dogs during our trip to Tanzania in February 2009, it was incredible; we could not believe our eyes. It was one of the highlights of our trip! I’ve blogged about our sighting in a previous post and you can see some of my photos here.
In March 2009 after we returned home, we visited Beekse Bergen Safaripark to attend a talk given by Greg Rasmussen and Peter Blinston from the Painted Dog Conservation project and it was great to see how the project was progressing. We also learned that a lot of the support for the project comes from the Netherlands, there is a foundation here: Stichting Painted Dog Conservation.
We wrote an article about the talk on our website (here’s the link) and not long after, we received an email from the Chairman of Stichting PDC and our support of the Painted Dogs snowballed, as did their support of zoocrew.eu.
When it came time to design the Painted Dog Conservation 2010 Calendar, Stichting PDC asked if they could use the photos we had taken in Tanzania and we sent off several high resolution images to their designer/printer.
Last week I went to visit the Chairman to collect several of the calendars for our own distribution. We weren’t sure what to expect but we knew that one of our images had been selected. I assumed it would be a standard wall calendar with 12 images, one for each month. What I discovered was a 100x70cm poster-size wall calendar, with only one image: mine! And the image credit is for zoocrew.eu! So exciting!
I know some of you have been waiting to see what it looks like, and it’s so hard to give a sense of scale in a photo… but here you go, here’s a peek:
“This year we decided to go on an organised group safari aimed at photographers; we chose the ‘Ultimate Africa’ photo safari with Chris Weston (it was the opportunity to ‘walk with lions’ that totally reeled us in!) Now, where to start?! Honestly, this trip was incredible….”
Want to read more? My travel journal is now available on my website… whoohoo!!
