mt. kilimanjaro, june 5, 2009

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

the eensy, weensy spider... and other animalia


I have some photos of various animals we have encountered to date. Some were in Jozani Forest in Zanzibar, others we met just last weekend in Arusha National Park - the weather was a little cloudy, so the pictures aren't as sharp as i'd hoped, but they should give you some idea of what's to come hopefully (i figure i have a few more park visits ahead in which to make a few adjustments and improvements!)

From Jozani, most famously present were the red colobus monkeys, who paid little attention to us, jumping (and peeing) just feet from us... even having territorial squabbles, ignoring us entirely
And the tiny bat-spider, above (this may not be its official latin name, but it was descriptive!)
And then... our guided spotted in the mangroves a strange pair:
In Arusha National Park (where Mt. Meru is based - although it was covered by clouds all day, so no pictures there!), there were many of the usual suspects:
The shyer black and white colobus;
Lots of baboons (in troops hanging out on the road... until we rudely made them saunter off);Lots of buffalo;Giraffe and zebra;Scaredy-cat warthogs;A lone brave dikdik (teeny little antelope like creature, less than a foot long);









And, for the grand finale, slightly-suicidal or very very brave, little blue monkeys making huge leaps among the treetops (this little guy seen launching himself barely made it across this gap, falling far out of this frame to a much lower branch on the tree...) Michael has it on video - although the part where the monkey actually catches the branch is cut off and makes the end appear rather ominous for the little guy. Fear not, he scrambled away on the branch unscathed by the heart-stopping near miss.


(below is the closest Mt.Meru came to showing itself to us...)

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