Baboon babes

Babies are always cute, but these baboon babies are really adorable – check out the youngster hitching a ride on dad!
 

Mischievous monkeys

Most safaris stop for a picnic lunch near the Mara River, and the local residents always come out to play; vervet monkeys. 

Over the years they’ve learnt that if they see humans here, food is close behind; the cheeky, nimble little pests have become skilled at creeping up behind an unsuspecting picnicker, and grabbing their lunch. 

Oranges and bananas seem the favourite snacks (they don’t eat meat), and the monkeys can be quite brazen – Carrie’s picnic box was marauded by a particularly audacious monkey, who snatched an orange virtually out of her hands! 

Luckily, brandishing a long stick in their direction usually is enough to keep these cheeky monkeys at bay.

Monkey video!

We came across this group of Red Colobus monkeys in Jozani Forest on Zanzibar.

Zanzibar monkeys at Jozani forest

I love monkeys, but the Red Colobus monkeys on Zanzibar are the cutest I’ve seen in the wild – non-aggressive and playful, with vivid red backs and plenty of feisty youngsters tumbling through the branches. The second troupe we came across got really curious and gradually moved towards us, until one of the teenagers got so close as to touch my umbrella. The best part of the first encounter we had – at that stage accompanied by a huge group of Brit tourists – was watching the monkeys nonchalantly relieving themselves on the tourists below. No, that ‘dripping’ is not rain…