2005: Behaviour: Mammals - Highly Commended Print
Yukihiro Fukuda (Japan)
Snow trails
Japanese macaques hate deep snow. 'They're reluctant to venture out after a heavy fall, because they know how hard it is to wade through the drifts,' says Yukihiro . Their home, Jigokudani, in Japan's Nagano Prefecture, is at an altitude of 800 metres (2,624 feet), and as much as a metre of snow can fall there in a single night. One morning, Yukihiro watched the snow-bound macaques to see what they would do. Eventually, and reluctantly, one monkey took the role of snowplough, creating a path for the others to follow. An hour or so later, their movements had created a criss-crossing pattern of snow trails.
Canon EOS 10D with Canon EF 70-200mm f2.8 IS lens; 1/400 sec at f5.6; 200 ISO; tripod.
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