A Barbary Macaque monkey at the Monkey Forest, Trentham Estate, Trentham, Stoke on Trent, England, UK
In the treetops of Staffordshire baby monkeys are being born at the hugely successful Monkey Forest at the Trentham Estate, the family attraction and has a huge following among the visiting public. They join 140 Barbary Macaques who live in total freedom in 60 beautiful acres, swinging from oak to beech, foraging in grass for scattered seeds, chattering to one another and grooming fur, just metres away from visitors who walk through almost a mile of cleared forest path. You can view species in the wild. Owned by Frenchman Guillaume de Turckheim whose father, Gilbert, created the first monkey forests in France and Germany in the 1960s. The walk through the forest is leisurely and lovely, within shaded glades, through open forest bursting with spring rhododendrons and bluebells, and beside a babbling stream where the monkeys drink. Trained guides are on hand to explain monkey facts, and how a team of workers and volunteers, including zoologists, observe monkey behaviour and habits in an effort to gather data which can help to preserve a primate whose numbers have declined in the last quarter of a century to just 10,000 in the wilds of Algiers and Morocco (down from 23,000 in 1978). So far, 600 Barbary Macaques from the sister parks have been reintroduced back into the wild. Visitors are in for a treat. Born with black fur, as opposed to the yellow brown colouring of their parents, baby Barbary Macaques have tiny, bald pink faces and big ears. They cling to their mothers’ bellies for a couple of weeks before venturing forth on skinny, shaky legs to climb their first tree.
Size: 3650px × 4896px
Photo credit: © Lee Karen Stow / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: animal, animals, children, conservation, conservationvisitors, cute, day, funny, karen, lee, leisure, monkeys, park, perched, portrait, precious, primate, primitive, stow, tourist, wild, wildlife
