Squirrel monkeys at Wellington Zoo

The last time I went to the Wellington Zoo I photographed the squirrel monkeys and showed the resulting images to my mother in Auckland. Impressed, she went into the Auckland Zoo to photograph some for herself. Unfortunately she was somewhat disappointed there and didn’t manage to get any good images and said it was really hard to see the squirrel monkeys there. So she booked a flight to Wellington and back on the same day so I could take her to the Wellington Zoo.

On arrival we realised a very big mistake in our planning. School holidays! Add to that the recent opening of the Asia area and that equated to LOTS of visitors to the zoo. Parking was an issue but eventually we found a space recently vacated by someone leaving. We headed straight to the squirrel monkeys, adjusted the bench seat to a position that suited and sat down with the camera and long lenses.

Because of the reflections on the glass I have found it better to have distance between the glass and myself using a long lens and wait until there are no people around. People create reflections in the glass, so a lot of our time was spent waiting for those brief moments in between groups of people.

I am really happy with the results from this trip also and hope that my mother has achieved similar results. The glass was a bit dirty but one of the zoo keepers assured me it was cleaned every morning. The mess was on the inside so all I can say is that they are grubby little monkeys – but that isn’t really fair, the monkeys obviously enjoy the interaction with people through the glass and that is where the mess comes from. One of the babies was really interested in a hand that had been put on the glass.

Next time I think we will be planning the day a little better – earlier in the morning because the light goes from that area at about 2pm, and visit on a day that is not school holidays.