23 Insane Animal Hybrids

Mandrill looking up by Andrea Young

A proboscis monkey being released into the wild after being fitted with a satellite collar.

Koroit Boulder Opal - Koroit, Queensland, Australia

Gorilla walk cycle

Day 50 - Gorilla TREKKING!

Today was probably, singlehandedly, one of the most challenging days for me in terms of physical and mental exhaustion. We arrived at Bwindi Impenetrable Forest to meet up with our guide and the two rangers that would be accompanying us on our trek to see the critically endangered mountain gorillas. Each ranger carried a rifle; they stated that it was to protect us from the elephants in the forest (yes, elephants) - but we all knew it was also for protection from poachers.

There are only about 800 gorillas in the wild in total, and the Ugandan park is home to about 300 of them. Of these, we learned we would be on the search to see the Busingye family which had about ten members.

We started trekking, and we had to climb about 400m in altitude through a mountainside village before even getting to the park. After trekking up one mountain, down it, then up another, we had to start going off trail since our guide had heard from the trackers. Apparently the gorillas were close. However, we ended up tracking them for another three hours through a path that the gorillas had just created on their search for food.

We were bushwhacking, crawling through brambles, climbing on TOP of bushes, and sliding down slopes while holding on to vines around us to prevent us from falling down the mountainside. Turns out, our group was selected to have the toughest route and the hardest family to locate because we consisted of seemingly fit young adults. We finally got eyesight on a silverback about five hours into the trek, and we were smack dab in the middle of the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest.

The gorilla took off running up the hill, and we followed it. Grabbing tree branches and roots, I was trying to scramble up the hillside while crawling through gorilla poop (literally). After tracking them for another 30 minutes, the gorilla finally decided to stop because he met up with the rest of his family. After snapping a few photos, I decided to just enjoy the moment I had worked so hard to get to. I was lying on the ground, looking this massive silverback gorilla in the eye, and I swear he was looking right back.

In total, we figured we trekked for about 25-30km, and it took us ten hours. Oh, and did I mention I tore my hip flexor muscle on hour two?!

I encourage all of you to watch the documentary “Virunga” to gain some insight on wild mountain gorillas in Uganda, Rwanda, and the Congo. It is informative and heartbreaking, and completely opened my eyes to the struggles that wildlife (and he rangers that protect them) face today.

WOW <3

Sadly I am physically unable to make such a trek, but I admire those who do!

Mandrill looking up by Andrea Young

Ape, Siamang

The Siamang is a type of gibbon and “lesser ape.”

Next week I may skip due to the unavailability of a computer, but the next one is the Armadillo.

Photo ref credited to Eric Baccega

The specific reason for an infant proboscis monkey’s non-resemblance to their mature counterparts are not well known. The evolutionary advantage of this contrast could be for camouflage purposes, like the baby tapir, or to help mothers locate their infants more easily, like the gray langur (a fellow Colobine monkey).

quick question how does a human relax? i would like to try it

I’ve got a conference this weekend, and while I tend to duck out before keynotes and go home early (I get tired), I am absolutely staying for this one

“This presentation explores affective and imaginative paralysis in the Anthropocene. Its muses and media are several: the electricity of the Freudian unconscious, teenage catastrophe and utopia, Icelandic and Oaxacan modes of neo-anarchism and above all the popular Japanese manga/anime Shingeki no Kyojin, (literally, “Giants advance,” better known in English as “Attack on Titan”). This is an experiment in using the concepts, language and performance of energy humanities to generate emotional as well as ideational breakthroughs in our relationship to the Anthropocene. And I advance the argument that what Tim Morton has trenchantly identified as our hypoactive “hyperobjective” condition can only be countered through hyperactive hyposubjectivity.“

the keynote for this anthropology conference is apparently about Attack on Titan. 

1. I wasn’t kidding.

2. This talk was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever heard, using the titans as metaphors for climate change and the civilisation we’re living in now. The titans need to learn to die, he said, so that what’s left of humanity can imagine a different way of being.

Flipping through my dad’s old books makes me want to study anatomy so bad, not that I do not enjoy linguistics!

Pygmy marmoset (Callithrix pygmaea) photo by Malene Thyssen.The pygmy marmoset is a small New World monkey native to rainforests of the western Amazon Basin in South America. It is notable for being the smallest monkey and one of the smallest primates in the world at just over 100 grams (3.5 oz) (Madame Berthe’s mouse lemur is smaller). It is generally found in evergreen and river edge forests and is a gum-feeding specialist, or a gummivore.