Welcome To The 7th Heaven – Bonett Macaques

Valparai, Tamil Nadu

Light! The absence of which when your subject is staring right at you is the most frustrating thing for a photographer. There’s no amount of edit or AI that can fix bad light. Time! There’s only that much that you can afford for your hobby and you have to space it out. Now it’s just pretty damn sad isn’t it that there’s guaranteed good light during only that much time in the year? I’m not the only hobbyist photographer who wishes that he could pack all his trips into those few months of good light. But sadly, that won’t happen so we’re often left with no choice but to take the calculated chance.

I’ve developed an itch to see Primates this year. I started actually “seeing” Monkeys with my Manas trip in April when I went into the “Kingdom Of The Homrai” to see two Primate Species there and it got persistent, that itch. There are 24 species of Primates in this country and I’m slowly figuring out that their physical and character traits are very different from each other and that’s got as much to do with their place in their environment as it does with their natural abilities. Monkeys are versatile, smart and honestly, a lot of fun. You just have to keep your eyes open cause mischief’s always about where monkeys are. If you’re not careful around these guys, you might just have stuff chucked at you, get urinated / defecated on, or might even have to pay the ransom for a stolen phone or bag. Seriously, look it up. It happens all the time with Monkeys. They’re smart and they know that they’re fast. What that means for me, is that I have to them like birds from behind the lens. At least 1/1000 shutter is what I'd call safe for Primates.

The summer season at work was over and I had to get out. It’d been almost 5 months out of the forest for me and most reserves were shut for the monsoon. The birds wouldn’t be in till winter and with my itch, this trip was an easy decision really when I worked out that 2 black Primates were found in the Anaimalai Hills of Tamil Nadu along with another species of Macaque. I hadn’t seen black Primates and the decision to brave the rains to see those three species was a no brainer in my desperation to be in nature. I told myself that I’d done alright in Manas where I’d gotten some experience with em in the trees. The rain and absence of forest access in an open vehicle were the challenges though. I’d be chasing the Lion Tailed Macaques, Nilgi Langurs and Bonnet Macaques around the little tea town of Valparai which borders the Anaimalai Tiger Reserve in a closed cab with a cabbie on tarmac and with 80% probability of rain. I needed nature man and two months of on and off research had me pretty confident that I’d see some luck if only half of my 4 days there weren’t washed out. That’s how I justified the challenge and risks to myself and pretty much how I ended up in Valparai last week. The little tea garden town they refer to as “The Seventh Heaven”. Which is always pictured with clouds and fog aka, BAD LIGHT..

It was a race against the rain with 10 states being handed heavy rainfall warnings when I landed in Coimbatore. Chance handed me a Jack though. The adventure began on day 0 not 1 with this sighting of the Bonett Macaques on one of the famous hair pin bends that lead up to Valparai. Remember the “Capped Langurs Of Bansbari”? Well, those guys and these would just be called “Crested” if they were birds. Yeah, they’re named for their hairstyle just like the Capped Langurs and the little troop that I met was so damn cute. They walked right up when they noticed my attention with the little ones getting bolder as I kept clicking. Little dudes ended up on the roof of the cab as well. Just look at those expressions in Pics : 12,13 & 15.

These guys introduced me to the pouch that Macaques have in their mouth. It’s something I didn’t catch in Manas. ( Pics : 6 – 9 ). These pouches are located inside their mouths and help in carrying and storing food during collection. The pouches contain enzymes that help in breaking down starch in the stored food. This allows for predigestion and more efficient nutrient absorption. Interestingly, these guys fill up these pouches more over open terrain than they do when up in the trees (where I saw them in Manas) for safety and fast foraging. They were out by the highway here and it’s the little ones who seem to be playing around with the pouch here. They weren’t threatened by my presence at all with the parents grooming the little ones right in front of me ( Pics : 14 & 16 ).

This chance sighting had me wishing that I had a shorter lens. We were on the road though and I made do with what I had given that these guys were right by the car and I didn’t wana wander too much onto the other side of the mountain road and end my adventure before it even officially started. The shots were tight, the sighting was sweet and as I rolled into town, I was in pretty high spirits to catch a species that I’d been looking forward to seeing for a while now, the unique and endangered Lion Tailed Macaques.

That evening, I finally got to chat with my cabbie who was to be with me for the trip and some things became pretty apparent as a result. I had 4 days and 2 more species to see at the least. That said, I really wanted another go at the Bonnet Macaques as well. The challenge I hadn’t accounted for earlier was that my driver and I spoke very little of the same language and as I rummaged in my phone to find those research papers I had found online to write down the names of locations mentioned there, I heard the faint sound of thunder from afar.

50 – 50. That’s what the chances of success looked like to me then cause I was also staring at accuweather, which was predicting 5 straight days of rain for Valparai. I’d asked for it really and now I was in it. How’d it work out? Ill let you know.