Photographing Lion-tailed Macaque’s

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I was always passionate about photography and this made me seriously think about buying a new Canon 1D Mark III camera. Ever since I bought one, I had been longing to go for a long journey to experience the wilderness of nature.

Photographed by Jeebu

We (George, Jeebu & me) finally decided to drive to the Anamalais to enjoy its picturesque landscapes. Another plan we had was to explore the wild for the Lion-tailed Macaques and capture them onto our cameras. This stretch of road on the Western Ghats had 40 deadly hairpin curves which made the drive even more dangerous.

We started our expedition from Bangalore by 21:00 hrs. There was a slight drizzle and we were enjoying the drive though the rain did cause some qualms. We had our dinner and we also fuelled our vehicle from Krishnagiri. Being the shortest route, we drove approx. 40 Kms from Salem towards Bhavani, via Mettur dam. We were accelerating at maximum speed intending to reach Palakkad on time. As soon as we reached Walayar check post in the TN – Kerala border by 04:00 hrs, we had our first obstacle popping up. The front tyre of our vehicle got punctured and we had to get it replaced it with the stepney.

A friend of mine, Mr. Ashok, who is also a photographer, joined us from Walayar and we headed towards the Anamalais. The road from Pollachi is very scenic and serene and the changing altitude made the atmosphere nippy and the visibility dropped considerably due to mist (fog). Though it was rainy morning, as and when it was noon, we could see a rainbow, one of the most spectacular light shows observed on earth!!!

En route, Ashok was more focussed on searching for wildlife. He was lucky enough to spot various species like the giant squirrel, Nilgiri Langur, jungle foul and peacock. The landscape too was very exotic from top and I couldn’t resist from clicking.

We reached the Anamalais, our destination, by 10.45 hrs. After settling down, we continued our quest for capturing the Lion-tailed Macaques in the woods. We were welcomed initially in the way by shrikes, White cheeked barbet, wood peckers and wagtails and finally we were able to see the Lion-tailed Macaques.

Joseph, a guy specially appointed for taking caring LTM was introduced to us for assisting us in our expedition. Joseph was there for protecting the LTMs from human intervention. We had to wait for quite some time to see the Macaques come closer. We were all set with our Canon 600mm’s and 300F4’s to capture all / any instances that we came across.

The Lion-tailed Macaque ranks among the rarest and most threatened primates. According to the IUCN, only approximately 2,500 of these animals live scattered over several areas in Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. They have become one of the rare species that are isolated and fragmented for the cause of accommodation, agriculture and construction of water reservoirs by the humans.Destruction of their habitat and the fact that they avoid human proximity has led to the drastic decrease of their population.

It was already 15:00 hrs when we had lunch. Everyone seemed to be very tired and so, we decided to return. George took over as the driver while I had a short nap. After dropping Ashok at Palakkad, the rest of us returned to Kochi, cherishing the exhilarating photography session with the Macaques.