Monkey Business
A Rhesus macaque at Tanglang Mountain.
Mammals. The warm-blooded, hairy group of vertebrates with 6000+ extant species of which we’re all apart. An amazingly varied group ranging from the absolutely colossal blue whale down to the unbelievably tiny bumblebee bat and a group with species adapted for every climate that can be found on every continent and in every ocean the world has to offer. Except for Shenzhen.
That’s not entirely true, but it’s certainly how it feels. Back in the UK, it would be easy enough to head out in the local area with a chance of spotting rabbits, foxes, and maybe even a badger if you’re lucky. Sadly, we just don’t have anything like that here in Shenzhen. It’s almost impossible to find any mammals apart from the obvious domesticated cats and dogs around the city. Of course, there’s also the former’s ‘wild’ population that runs riot around the parks, causing havoc for the birds.
Other than that, the wild mammal population is non-existent, especially if you’re hoping for anything more significant than a rat or chipmunk. Non-existent, save reports of one species rumoured to frequent the central mountain range splitting the northern and southern parts of Shenzhen - Tanglang Mountain. That species is the rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta).
Absolutely no issues with all the doggos being around.
Since moving to Shenzhen 8 years ago, there have always been rumours of monkeys in the central mountain range. Still, they’re so rarely seen, and over such a wide range, there’s almost no chance of just stumbling across them. The rhesus macaque can be found all over China, so it shouldn’t be surprising they are here. I photographed them on my trip to western Sichuan and a separate trip just outside Chengdu. But the idea that they are actually here in the middle of this monstrously populated city still baffles me. I’ve hiked Tanglang Mountain many times in my years here and never had the luck of spotting them. Even on trips explicitly looking for them, it’s never happened.
However, with winter here, everything gets more lively in the reasonable temperatures, and luck would have it that someone spotted the macaques on the main trail going up the mountain. After a few reported sightings, I decided to venture over there with a few friends, hoping for a glimpse of the monkeys through the trees or maybe one running across the road. Considering the recent sightings, it seemed like a great time to have a chance at spotting them, and even if that failed, a nice hike up and down a mountain is never a bad thing.
We got much luckier than just a hike. We spotted the macaques near the top of the trail on the way up the mountain and they hung around for about half an hour, giving opportunities for a few photos. Altogether there were about eight macaques in the group. And to add to the delight of just seeing them, a few infants were also running around and playing. All in all, it was a wonderful experience. After this first trip and the success of actually seeing them, I decided to set myself this little project for the coming month - a target I’ve set myself to do more of throughout 2022.
Until now, most of my photography has been based on the simple intention of going out and trying to take a photo that looks nice. Occasionally, it’s to spot a new species, but I always want to try and capture something that looks appealing. For this project, I wanted to set myself the intention of doing something a little differently and creating a specific set of images.
Monkeys are fascinating animals to observe, even more so to me. There definitely aren’t any running around the local forests back in the UK, so the novelty of wild monkeys is entertaining at the least. Perhaps it’s also because of the similarities we share and the ease of attributing anthropomorphic qualities to them.
After capturing this portrait on my first trip. I decided I wanted to spend the month taking every opportunity possible to photograph the monkeys. The aim was to build a collection of portraits and close up images that contributed something other than just looking nice .
After five successful trips spotting the macaques and a fair few more without any luck, I’ve come away with a set of images I’ve really enjoyed creating. My intention at the beginning was only to have a series of black and white images. Still, the more I visited and photographed the two groups of macaques, the more I thought about how much of a shame it would be not to show off how beautiful they are in colour as well. For that reason, I decided to settle on five black and white and five colour images.
You can see the culmination of the project below.
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Overall, I’m rather happy with how it came out. It was surprisingly enjoyable to spend time with these two groups of macaques over this last month. The best part, of course, was watching the infants swinging around in the trees and playing with each other. Having the opportunity to see the different characters of some of the monkeys over this brief period was also a fantastic experience.
There are plenty more projects to come over this year. I’m excited about the different opportunities that might go with them as well - I’ve heard rumours of wild boar being around some of the mountains, so is that where we go from here? I don’t know, but these mini-projects will also help contribute to this big ongoing website project with any luck. One I’m determined to pay more attention to than I did last year!
For now, though, stay safe, and set yourself some mini-projects. You don’t need to conquer the world all in one go.
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Head over to Instagram for some nature!
The mountains over Shenzhen really offer some fantastic views of the city!