04.23.23: Baboon foot care

My wife and I have visited a quite a few of zoos through the years, including a number when I’ve carried my camera to get some animal photos.

But I admit that our visit to the San Diego Zoo a few years ago was special. That’s the zoo represented by Joan Embery when she brought animals to The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in the 1970s. I always enjoyed the interaction between Carson, the animals and Embery, so those visits placed the San Diego Zoo on my “one of these days” travel destinations list.

The San Diego Zoo is always listed among the best zoos in the world. It’s a sprawling facility, which makes it difficult to see everything in a day. And it’s a beautiful zoo, although there are features at some other zoos that I liked better. But it was still an enjoyable day.

I found this gelada baboon sitting in the sun atop a rock in its large area, watching people walk by and occasionally appearing to doze off. I grabbed a couple of rather routine photos and was about to move on when the gelada yawned, looked around, then starting working on its foot. I knew that made for a more interesting photo than one showing the gelada staring off into space so I took a quick shot.

I like how the backlight from the early afternoon sun highlighted the gelada’s fly-away hair (it looked like he was having a bad hair day) and helped isolate the baboon from the background.

The gelada is sometimes called the bleeding-heart monkey because of a conspicuous bright red patch of skin shaped like an hourglass on their chests. The gelada lives in the Ethiopian Highlands at elevations of 5,900 to 14,400 feet above sea level.

I was pleased that this photograph has an “in the wild” feel to it instead of an “in a zoo” feel. There’s no fencing or other obstructions in the shot.

A zoo visit provides opportunities to photograph unusual animals, but getting quality photos is challenging. It's often more difficult for me to get quality photos at a zoo than it is in the wild.

It seems like it should be the other way around. After all, I know exactly where the animals are at a zoo. There are maps and signs. Can't miss 'em. Just walk up to the pen and start shooting.

Except there are often high fences to shoot through. Or glass walls. And crowds of people. And the animals tend to seek shelter far from the viewing areas.

The best chance for success is to carry a long lens, spend time walking around the exhibits to find positions that provide clear line-of-sight to the animals and hope for some luck.