Cologne Zoo - Douc langurs

The three last red-shanked douc langurs in Europe inside the Urwaldhaus, the great ape house in Cologne Zoo, Germany. An extremely interesting and charismatic species. Taking this picture was extremely hard as the light was crap, the window caused reflection everywhere and the langurs kept moving about. I spent about 40 minutes with fellow forumster Eagle attempting to get a good shot. Sorry about the reflection in the picture but this was the only shot I could get of the whole family.

July 2009

Very nice set of shots - as you say, this exhibit is an absolute nightmare for photography!

Shame to see the numbers dropping so quickly - I saw five in May.

Such a shame they're dying out so fast. Should've gone with you Toddy!

Yes, indeed! And the fact that the large rocks in front of the exhibit on which we sat kept rolling from side to side didn't exactly help. The great thing about taking the photos with Eagle was that we would occasionally switch places to give each other a different perspective to the monkeys. And the other visitors at the zoo, oddly enough, did not seem to be so interested in the doucs?

But that were great 40 minutes
I never saw such active doucs, too bad that they die out in western zoos.
Yes, the exhibit is a real nightmare, but there are many other horrible exhibits for photography in cologne, for example the Madagascar-house or the Howlermonkey-house.

Your best "portrait shot" ever, Toddy? Some very well spent 40 minutes I would suggest and this picture is now downlowded on my computer, filed under "Best photographs on ZooChat".

It is a knock-out!

Perhaps? Thanks for the praise I was lucky that the plants reflected in the glass in the photo adds to the overall "jungle effect" and somehow makes an interesting touch...

Yes , I would say those were 40 minutes exceptionally well-invested.Incredible shot.

Quite stunning appearance for primates.