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Showing posts with the label proboscis monkeys

Signs of Wildlife — Signs of Hope

Posted by Rebecca Whitham, Vice President of Engagement with Photos by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren, WPZ  A female proboscis monkey and her baby in Borneo’s Kinabatangan region. The boat driver cuts the engine. We slowly bob and drift along the river toward the direction of what has caught the observation team’s eyes—a sight found nowhere else in the world: the improbably proportioned proboscis monkey. Researchers with HUTAN’s primate observation unit have spotted a small family group. With the aid of binoculars and a clipboard, they take note of juveniles playing, female adults nearby at rest. A dominant male on a branch all his own watches over us, potbelly flopped over almost as characteristically as his nose.  Our team recognizes a male proboscis monkey by his signature nose. That signature nose is meant to signal his attractiveness, and possibly act as a sound enhancer for better group management. It also has given the proboscis monkey its name and its prominence in the eco-st...