I met this cutie and the rest of their tribe during a boat tour of the beautiful Thung Yee Pheng Mangrove Forest on Koh Lanta, Thailand. Long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) are one of the many species that have made this amazing environment their home.
Our tour guide provided us with pineapple slices, as interacting with wild monkeys by giving them treats was part of the tour. So these guys know that humans floating around on boats often means food. They were still quite cautious though and with good reason, since humans sometimes may pose great danger to them. Youngsters were more relaxed and would get up on the boat, take the food we handed out and sit there munching away.
There is something very special about meeting free-living animals in their own environment. To me it is quite a humbling and fulfilling experience. There is caution and mutual respect, attentiveness to each other’s body languages and brief looks into each other’s eyes. And inside a knowing awakens, that beyond all apparent differences we are in fact the same.
Photo: Long-tailed macaque at Thung Yee Pheng Mangrove Forest
Koh Lanta, Thailand
© Paul Josefsson