Baboon portrait

Baboon portrait, originally uploaded by andiwolfe.

Baboons are very clever animals, but have really become a problem on the Cape Peninsula. This is especially true at Cape Point National Park. The animals are so used to people and the fact that tourists carry food that they've become thugs and muggers - all for a chip bag or a boxed sandwich.

It's very seldom that I would be able to get close enough to a wild baboon whilst out in the field to take an intimate portrait. The behavior of wild troops is very different from these accustomed bands of thieves. In the wild, there is usually a sentinel baboon that keeps track of everything going on in the vicinity. When the sentinel spots a hiker, there's a hooting call that alerts the rest of the troop, and off they run.