Africa: Primates
For sheer entertainment, nothing beats baboons. Entire families (or maybe more like entire tribes?) congregate on the roads; grooming, playing, play-fighting, babies riding piggyback on their moms. They were especially abundant in Lake Nakuru, Kenya, and Lake Manyara, Tanzania.
Hiding out in the trees here and there were the Blue monkeys (above), which don't have much blue to them, except for a slight bluish tinge to their faces.
On the other hand, there's no mistaking the blue in the Blue-balled Vervet monkey (above), which gets its name from ... well ... you figure it out. The turquoise color correlates to the animal's social status, becoming brighter in animals with higher social rank. (Someday, that little gem of information will come in handy for you in a game of trivia.)
My ten year old son had a good laugh over the monkeys with the blue bits.
He figures God got a little cheeky while creating the primates.
Cute. Based on your pictures, we should be saying baboon-back ride instead
of piggy-back ride.
Donna
Danie: LOL, yes, it does seem like he got cheeky, doesn't it?
Those blue-balled vervet monkeys are really something. Boy, if ever there
was evidence for the evolutionary psychology theory that all social
structures boil down to reproduction, then this is it. High social status?
Wouldn't a bit of wise gray fur between the ears have been enough? Or
maybe a thickening of muscle over the shoulders? No, these guys have to go
with neon blue scrotums that probably glow in the dark.