Ben Tutton

On Tuesday I had decided that because the forecast looked good I would spend Wednesday night camped out in the forest in order to be there first thing so I could get the macaques emerging from the trees in the morning. So on Wednesday morning with a packed bag I headed up into hills. Sandra dropped me at the green group and luckily I could see them from the side of the road, so I didn’t have to search for them. I went over and let them know of my presence with a cough (coughing lets them know you are around so you don’t startle them when you walk behind them) On previous days they hadn’t been particularly happy about my presence, I think it was to do with the tripod, but today they seemed happy for me to be around. As soon as I got to them they started walking. I followed them across the road into another flat wooded area which they promptly passed through, and then they started heading into the “parallel valleys”.

The site where these macaques live is either side of a quarry that has been dug into a hill. The Valleys are on the right of the quarry and run vertically to the top of the hill separated half way up by a fence into the “upper” and “lower” valleys. We traversed a few of the ridges in the lower valleys and then started heading up. This is easy going for the macaques, but I was carrying about 25 kg of kit including the glidetrack which protruded about a foot above my head and caught on every passing branch, and I had the video tripod slung across my shoulders. I would probably have struggled walking on the flat with this, but walking through a forest on the side of a steep hill I was getting fairly out of breath. After about 2 hours of walking it appeared as though the monkeys were about to stop and eat, relieved of the respite I put the tripod down, on the ground, but almost immediately they took off again. I followed in close pursuit for another two and a half hour as more valleys were traversed, and we ascended into the upper valleys. I’d barely had time to rest, let alone get my camera out, so I was relieved when finally just after 12:30, nearly five hours since we’d set off, the macaques stopped. They grazed on the lush long grass in the valley for a short while before ascending into the trees for a siesta. In the middle of the day the main problem with filming is the massive exposure range between the shady and sunlit areas which give very distracting highlights. This, coupled with the fact that the monkeys were asleep, meant that there was nothing really to film. I decided to eat my lunch then joined the macaques for a bit of a nap. when I awoke about 45 minutes later a few of the younger monkeys were sitting in the grass around me. There was a 1 year old juvenile about half a meter from my head, and a mother and infant about the same distance from my feet. It felt amazing to be so close to these animals (I even took some video on my phone of this which will be uploaded here when I figure out how to get it the right size!) The macaques started to graze again in this verdant valley, but the light was still a bit too harsh for filming. I decided to try a timelapse of them moving up the valley as they ate. Unfortunately this also fell foul to the large exposure range as it was set up then the sky was a bit overcast. I knew the sun would come out again, so underexposed by about 1 stop, but even with this precaution when the sun did return the highlight areas were still far too overexposed and couldn’t be recovered.

The Macaques continued up the slope until they reached the brow of the hill, almost the highest point around. I had a look around and took in the scenery and with little hesitation the macaques started making their way back down the hill again. It was about 16:30 and I was hoping that they would stop soon as I really wanted to do a night timelapse of the view from the brow, but they didn’t stop. They headed down, albeit at a more leisurely pace than the ascent, however this was through dense oak woodland. I was having trouble keeping the macaques in sight as I struggled under the low branches on this steep rubble slope. To make matters worse, the macaques were turning over rocks to get at the ants that live underneath, and because of the gradient they would continue rolling down the slope. I was almost hit by a rolling rock a few times. I did manage to get the camera out and film this for a short while before they continued their march back down the hill. We traversed a couple of ridges and crossed the barrier back into the lower valleys. By this time the sun was getting low in the sky and I thought that they must be getting ready to settle down for the evening but they kept moving between valleys. Eventually they did slow and I managed to film for a short while, but the light was fading fast. It had sunk below the ridge of the valley and the last few remaining rays of light were illuminating the upper branches of the tallest trees. It was only now that the Macaques started climbing the trees to their night time resting places. We were in a densely forested part of their home range and they all climbed up the trees so quickly that I barely managed to film anything.

I’d decided to call it a night. Light levels were too low now to film, so I packed everything away and started to look for 2 suitable trees for my hammock. One of the macaques let out an alarm call and I heard some distant rustling. I carefully made my way back to my backpack and crouched down to get my camera. Out of the corner of my eye I could see 4 dark shapes. Wild boar. I slowly unzipped my pack, but at that point they noticed me and ran. I was sad to not have taken a photo but glad to have seen these animals fairly close up. I’d never seen one before in the wild.

I decided just to head to bed, so I set the hammock up nearby and ate the pasta that I’d brought with me from its plastic bag – it’s surprisingly difficult to eat from a plastic bag while sitting in a hammock! I then got into my sleeping bag and tried to drift off. Originally I had planned to take night timelapses of the stars, but the trees in this part of the forest were tightly packed so there was no real opportunity. There were still gaps that I could see the stars through though, and they looked fantastic. it was lovely to sleep “under the stars”. The clear sky meant that it was a cold night, and I found myself awake a few times with cold feet/back/sides/hands etc! the fact that you’re in a hammock means that you can be cooled down from both above and below. Still, I had a lovely sleep and hope to do it again.

In the morning my alarm woke me before sunrise. Everywhere was dark, I was shattered, and there was no movement from the monkeys. I decided to snooze for a short while and quickly fell asleep again. I was woken about 40 minutes later by a macaque descending the tree I was tied to. I couldn’t believe I’d missed it! most of the monkeys were already on the ground. I managed to get 1 shot of a monkey descending, but that was definitely not enough. The macaques were soon on the move again, and they continued for a short way to the bottom of the valley. when we reached there I realised that I had slept about 400m from where I had joined the group of monkeys on the previous day. They had led me in a large loop.

I continued to film them until about 9:30 when the last of my batteries ran out at about the same time as the light was getting harsh. I headed to the tourist area. dumped the tripod in Sandra’s car, and hitched a lift back to Azrou, where I dumped the cards onto the computer, then had a bite to eat and dozed and pottered for the rest of the day.

I awoke on Monday at the right time, I think everyone was slightly taken aback by the size of the tripod when I met them downstairs. We piled into the car and headed up to the green group of macaques that I would be filming, and that I had seen on Friday. I had been briefed by Neal that there may be a long walk ahead; the macaques have a large home range and can be found anywhere within that. Sometimes it takes over 2 hours to find them in the morning, and Mondays are usually the worst as you don’t know where to start looking. I didn’t feel like lugging the tripod around with me for that amount of time, so I left it in the car and would collect it when we located the macaques. We split into two teams. Barbara with Sandra and Neal with Me.

After searching the first area next to the road with no luck Sandra asked if we could check where we had last seen them on Friday. This was a long shot because they would never normally stay in the same place for such a long period of time but we headed off up to where we had left them when it started to rain on Friday. I was first to catch sight of them and quickly called Neal over. They were within about 30 meters of where they were on Friday evening – very peculiar.

We radioed Sandra and Barbara to make their way up. I then headed down to pick the tripod up from Sandra who had kindly collected it as she passed the car. I left my bag unattended on the floor and George, one of the make monkeys made his way over to it and try and take the contents. The researchers think that he may have come from a group used to tourists and so is an opportunist with bags because they mean food! Luckily Neal chased him off before any expensive camera equipment was broken, but after that I always zipped up my bag, and made sure that it was secured to something if I had to leave it.

The day went without a real hitch, although I did have a few problems with filming the monkeys.
- the first problem is contrast. after about 9 o’clock the sun rises a bit too high in the sky and causes really strong harsh lighting. This would be ok, if unflattering, if the light was constant, however as I’m filming in woods and forests there are shaded areas and exposed areas with a massive range of exposure vales. This leaves the subject perfectly exposed, but gives either really bright distracting highlights in the background, or really dark backgrounds depending on the situation. I dont really think there’s an easy way around this apart from shooting before 9 and after about 3:30 in the afternoon, or waiting for a cloudy day.

- the second problem is that they’re so quick, and almost constantly moving. In order to film a coherent sequence I need to capture them before they start the behaviour, then the behaviour happening (with different shot sizes), and then them finishing that behaviour. It sounds easy, but everything happens quickly and spontaneously. If the tripod is not set then it has to be placed and leveled, then the correct exposure set, and focus achieved. this takes ~20 seconds minimum, so I’ll usually miss the initiation of a behaviour. I can fairly easily capture the middle bits (the 100-400mm makes this much easier for different shot sizes) but I may even miss the end of a behaviour such as grooming because one will just walk away without notice and I’ll either be close in on a detail, or not recording. I suppose with time I will get better at predicting this, but for the moment it is a challenge.

On Monday evening I was absolutely shattered. I transferred the card to the mac, grabbed some dinner, then headed to bed.

Tuesday (Day 7) progressed in a similar way. We found the Macaques where we had left them on Monday. My first sight was of one of them sat in long grass with the morning sun providing a beautiful halo of golden light. I filmed a bit more as they moved around their home range, but filmed nothing fantastic. After lunch which we ate in a beautiful meadow adjacent to the monkeys (they must not see us eat so they don’t associate us with food) I decided that while the light was still harsh I would film some timelapses. One of them was a bit boring and the other looked boring on the back of the camera, but on the computer you can see the clouds recycling, i’m always amazed by how cool cloud’s constant movement looks.

I didn’t really shoot anything after the timelapses because the monkeys weren’t doing much interesting stuff, just sleeping mainly, so we headed back down to Azrou for me to get on with more logging and transferring and a bit of packing for the following day’s camping exploits.

Yesterday we (Neal, Barbara and I) organised that today we would head up the hill to go and check out the Tourist Group of macaques. I won’t be filming these monkeys. They are much more gregarious due to their daily contact with humans and they are also located where many tourists pass each day, so filming would have been tricky due to people getting in shots, and all the rubbish left behind after people have eaten their picnics. However I still thought it was important to see them, and Barbara has to get to recognise them all and to learn the areas that they live in.

At 10 this morning we set out walking up and out of Azrou towards the hills. Before leaving the town Neal bought us a sticky treat. A pancake with honey in the middle. absolutely delicious; it definitely provided the energy for the walk up the hill.

We then walked out of Azrou and up the hill on the 8 km journey to the tourist area. After a while of walking in what was turning out to be a rather warm day we decided to hitch a lift, and after a few rejections (probably due to my huge camera bag and touristy sunglasses) we jumped in the back of a pickup with chicken sh*t all over the floor… I thought of my risk assessment, and smiled at what Prof. James would say!

We were dropped off at tourist site, and thanked the driver for our ride then asked a couple of local guides where the monkeys were. none of them had seen them all morning so we went looking. We searched for a while in just abut every area that Neal knew of, but we had no luck, the macaques were nowhere to be found. We decided to wait for a while, as they often turn up near the picnic benches after lunch time, and while waiting I chatted to Driss, a very friendly Moroccan with fantastic English who sold peanuts to tourists. He was more than happy to chat to me as he had lived in Manchester for ~18 years. After a while of talking we decided that it was time for another look for the Macaques. We headed down from the road, but still didn’t find them. We decided to cut our losses and head back, we’d had a nice few hours in the beautiful countryside in the hills, and were ready for a bit of lunch.

On the way down we saw some cool animals including lots of lizards (I got excited, but the other two were much more subdued as they saw lizards back at home much more often.)

I saw my first ever dung beetles, and we even saw a wild tortoise!

We stopped and checked out the view several times on the descent into Azrou. the surrounding countryside is jut so lush and verdant at the moment everywhere looks beautiful, although it’s no good for my hayfever!

When we arrived back in Azrou Neall showed us his favourite chicken restaurant. The only thing they sell is rotisserie chicken. 20 dihrams, about 2 pounds, bought me a large plate of rice and chips, with a quarter of a large chicken, some dips for the chips, and a bowl of chicken innard soup which doesn’t sound great, but actually tastes fantastic. It definitely filled the hole left by the walk. It was washed down with large amounts of water served from re-purposed jugs of unknown origin, possibly oil or soap. The water tasted fine I was just slightly amused by them.

Since then I’ve just relaxed really and prepared myself and my kit for the first day of filming tomorrow.