These monkeys seem to love “selfies”.
In 2011, a female black-crested macaque (Macaca nigra) took a series of “selfies” on a camera set up by British photographer David Slater on the Indonesian Island of Sulawesi. These “selfies” catapulted the species into the limelight.
Now, camera traps in northern Sulawesi have captured some rare, fun footage of this same critically endangered species.
In the above video, a black-crested macaque — found only in Sulawesi — looks at a camera, examines it, and “chatters” — a vocal behavior that scientists from Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) say is most likely indicative of “curiosity with the camera”. The macaque even tries to pull the camera off.
Individuals of this species are at serious risk of extinction. Considered a delicacy by local Sulawesi populations, the macaques are severely threatened by hunting and habitat loss.
“Our initial results are already providing very exciting insights into Sulawesi’s unexplored rainforests as you can see with these quirky characters showing up in the video traps,” WCS Indonesia Country Director Noviar Andayani said in a statement.
WCS’s Northern Sulawesi Coordinator, Iwan Hunowu, added, “Sixty-seven percent of Sulawesi’s mammals are endemic, but if you remove bats this rises to 99 percent. There are 72 endemic mammal species. The camera trap results will be critical in informing our conservation strategy.”
This story was originally published on environmental news website Mongabay. Read the original article here.
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