Hoolock Gibbon

[Dipankar Mazumdar]

Dear All,
Male Hoolock Gibbon, India's only Primate, from the Panbari reserve forest, a part of the Kaziranga National Park Assam.

Panbari is off limits ever since the April 2009 incident of a Dutch tourist trampled to death by a rouge makhna Elephant.

More here : The Telegraph - Calcutta (Kolkata) | Frontpage | Elephant tramples Dutch tourist (http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090408/jsp/frontpage/story_10790841.jsp)

Panbari is a great place to see and photograph woodland birds of the region and we had to take special permission from the DFOs office. Being a journey on foot, the threat perception from elephants are very high and we were accompanied by armed guards with the explicit instructions to be very very alert.

Took a break from the birding to observe this male Gibbon swinging from branch to branch while foraging.

Large crop ,the hoolock was distant and the dense forest left me with a very small window to shoot from. Wish I could avoid the burnt out tree trunk.

EOS 7D + 300f4 + 1.4xII @ f5.6, 1/200, ISO400

Look forward to comments.

Cheers
Dipankar

[Mrudul Godbole]

Great sighting. Nice to see this rare species. The eye contact is nice. Agree about the tree trunk in the front. I would have liked a slight more space on the left as its fingers are nearly touching the left frame. Nicely captured in trying conditions. Thanks for sharing the details of the place. Look forward to more from Panbari.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Dipankar,
Good that you sighted these Hoolock Gibbons. Tough to shoot through vegetation. One can only wish for a clear sighting without obstructing vegetation. How much time did you spend there with the gibbons?

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

Nice image of this rare species.Nice expression captured.Panbari is possibly the best place to photograph them.Apart from lone tuskers,Panbari is known for its king cobras.Thanks for sharing.SaktiWild

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

P.S.:Primates include apes,monkeys,langurs, lemurs and tree shrews.They evovled from arboreal ancestors,developing the prehensile hands and feet distictive to them.Two species:
Western Hoolock gibbon(Hoolock hoolock)seen in the photograph and the Eastern Hoolock gibbon(Hoolock leucondys)are the only lesser apes amongst the Indian primates.
Thanks for sharing.
SaktiWild

[Abhishek Jamalabad]

Lovely image. I like this a lot. The dense forest with a lot of OOF FG elements gives a nice feel of the habitat. Had you dialed a +ve EC?
TFS

[Dipankar Mazumdar]

Dear Abhishek
Indeed I did dial a positive exposure compensation to get greater fur detail, on the flip side, the light being harsh the tree trunk in the foreground got over burnt ruining the image.
Cheers
Dipankar