Travel - Ethiopia - Geladas of Simien

in #photography6 years ago

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Just a few of the many shots I captured of Ethiopia's Gelada baboons. Ironically, despite sharing few similarities to baboons, these are not baboons.

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They are considered old world monkeys, which only live in Ethiopia, and are the last living members of the genus Theropithecus.

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They fit in perfectly with the highland terrain and if careful, you can spend hours watching them dig up their food. I was lucky enough to watch them for a few hours without them noticing...or rather, caring that I was around.

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Again, I chose to ignore my fears. This group, or Congress, of monkeys, were resting at around 3900-4000m. Which meant a lot of hiking and a lot of narrow pathways to the top. I questioned myself many times but kept myself from giving up.

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The climb wasn't difficult it was more of the elevation and the lack of control I felt that made me nervous. Despite it, I knew what was waiting and didn't want to miss it.

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We were really hoping to catch the Walia Ibex along with the rare leopard, but we lucked out.

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One of my goals in life is to become a full-time Natgeo photography capturing wildlife all over the globe and testing my boundaries. Just taking one step at a time.
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