jinian | selected Barbary apes (Gibraltar)

Chronologically, there are other things I should post about my trip first, but I teased about baby apes and now must deliver.

Not only do the pictures on this page total about 1M, but I'm linking them to the giant versions, because I cannot imagine that no one will want BABY APE WALLPAPER. The uncropped versions are available on request as well.

Our first apes appeared as soon as we got to the top of the Rock of Gibraltar on the cable car.

They were clearly the ones in charge. One reached out to try to bite someone who was too close for too long, and this one obviously considered himself to have a warrant for search and seizure.

The stroller-plunderer outranked this floppy guy, who wanted to look at the stroller too but was threatened off. Here, he receives comfort-by-grooming after flinging himself at the other's lap.

I have no idea who this man is, but I do know he paid a taxi driver to get up the hill, because the driver, who evidently had an ongoing relationship with this ape, got the ape onto the head. You would have had to pay me very well to be in Mystery Guy's place; the apes are not very big, but they're strong with large teeth, and they can be moody.

When I saw the BABY APE, I was transfixed, and demanded that Mom take a ton of pictures of it, even though they all turned out like this:

Most of the initial pics were later deleted, to free up memory card space and because we had these. Eeee!

The ape on the right, who was originally holding the baby, came up within a couple of feet of us (I backed off a bit) and started interacting with the ape on the left. Baby ape went for the second ape and suckled from her. Care by auntie? Or by father? The first ape was decidedly larger than the second, and we didn't see any nursing going on. Credible-looking web references say males do care for babies in this species, unusual though that is.