Primate's in the Central American rainforest
Whilst in Costa Rica I was able to photograph all four species of primate in the small Central American country. Howler Monkey’s were the first species I ever saw in the wild and remained the most common throughout the trip. Monkey’s are great fun to watch as they’re active, intelligent and curious, as they go about their day in pairs or small family groups, feeding on fruits and jumping between vines. Sometimes tricky to photograph as some species like Spider Monkeys and Capuchins move quickly and unpredictability through the canopy and the notoriously dense clutter of vines and leaves.
The call, or more of a constant roaring of Howler Monkeys stretches over vast areas. It was fairly common to hear them, especially in the mornings and my best encounter with them was during a walk along some farmland dirt roads, in-between spells of rain. The farmland was intermixed with clumps of forest and fruit trees, many valleys and hills, all connecting to cattle ranches and gardens. This area of Costa Rica although farmland, still seemed very wild. The abundance of birdlife had the bonus of its mammals too and this particular morning I stumbled across a few howlers hanging out in a tree close to the dirt road. One of the males was showing well on a nice open branch. It wasn’t at all difficult shooting during this encounter, as the monkey was just posing nicely. Just down the valley I could hear another group howling and another beyond that, there must’ve been loads of family groups spread across the landscape, taking advantage of he availability of food in farms plantations as well as still having the safety of forests nearby.
Spider Monkey’s were fairly frequent too, although exhibiting different behaviour to the howlers. Surprisingly, all the times I saw Spider Monkey’s it was a pair or single female with its young, which was old enough to move through the treetops by itself. A good way of viewing them was locating a group whilst following down the various canals by canoe or boat. These canals cut through the thick primary rainforest in Tortuguero on the Caribbean coastline and it appeared a few primates liked being on the edge of them. The young Spider Monkey’s were the only ones I managed to photograph well, as they were often times curious and would pause on branches just to look at us, or work out which branch to jump to next and scan the canopy for what fruits looked good, whilst the parent would constantly be moving through, rarely ever stopping. Near Arenal Volcano a youngster showed nicely high in the canopy of a primary forest, where at a slight elevation, we could watch it at near the same level to us.
In the forests along the Pacific coast, particularly in and around Manual Antonio National Park there were often a lot of primate activity. A large group of White-faced Capuchins went straight past us as they moved through. One individual even walking along the broad-walk just a few feet away. Females with their youngsters on their backs and sub adults all together, catching insects. Apparently in the past they used to be quite tame and approached people as they were fed regularly, but since that’s been banned they’ve returned to their normal behaviour in the forests. Not venturing low down or close to trails as often, so we were fortunate to get ouch close encounter and see multiple members of the family up close.
Squirrel Monkey’s are the smallest and my only encounter was with a group jumping between palms and power lines by the beachfront town. A surprising encounter, as this species tends to keep to the forest, rather than built up areas. I only had my 105mm lens with me, so had to make do with the situation, but managed to frame one individual at the top of the trunk as it peered down towards the sea and the afternoon sun shone through.
Throughout the trip I definitely found Spider Monkey’s to be the most fun to photograph. Whether by boat or on a hike, they appeared in a few great spots and offered some amazing photographic opportunities.