Jungle Spectres

ver since I shot my first Vietnamese primates, I was drawn to one very special species which eluded me again and again due to random constraints and hiccups. But this March I did it. A week's trek to Khau Ca, a national park hidden deep in the forests of northern Vietnam to shoot the ultra-rare Tonkin snub-nosed monkey. There are 5 species of snub-nosed monkeys in the world - one in Vietnam, one in Myanmar and 3 in China. This is the rarest and hardest to shoot of them all. Fewer than 300 individuals remain in existence, and Khao Ca NP has the largest population.

The whole thing wasn't easy. Forget the long planning and waiting for the permits, the multiple boring drives and hassle. Hiking and climbing for long hours just to get to camp was but the beginning of this ordeal. Every day we hiked in a very challenging forest environment to a starting point from which we'd wait for word from the trackers, and if they got sight of the monkey, the real hiking would begin. Add to that the fact that the camp offered absolutely zero comfort (I'm talking no chairs, no tables, sleep on the floor type of camp) and we end up with the hardest trekking I've done in decades.

On the fourth day, a small group of 20-30 individualts including adults, juveniles and tiny babies emerged and began interacting and jumping between the trees. They were far away but with the Canon 100-500mm plus a 1.4x teleconverter I managed to get some decent action shots, some with multiple monkeys, mothers carrying babies and more.

The shooting was extremely hard as I had to balance myself on sharp rocks, where if I fell the best result would be a broken leg, but our team took care of me and kept me safe when jumping between the steep ledges. This was an adventure I will not repeat anytime soon.