Bibi... out of all of the monkeys, the older female that I call Bibi (Bahasa for auntie, Ki Swahili for Grandmother) is the one macaque that has actually bonded with me.
Every observation day she'll make a special trip over to where I'm standing and just hang out with me for a while.
I truly have to fight the urge not to react to these communal moments. I don't want to be a factor in altering her behavior, nor the behavior of any other monkeys, more than I already do just by being present.
It's special, though, with Bibi, because there's nothing incredibly unique about me and my presence in the park. I don't feed the macaques, nor do I even carry food into the park. I'm one of a hundred or more human apes she'll see on a daily basis. I don't show fear or yell at the monkeys, so, in that case, my behavior is slightly different from other people. Still, Bibi has no particular reason to divert herself, or spend time with me. Except, maybe, she feels a comfortable kinship.
I feel as if Bibi senses my interest in watching the monkeys. She's keenly observant, actually. That's the ironic part, observing wild primates is inherently reciprocal. They're observing me as much as I'm observing them.
Bibi is not the only macaque who shows recognition of me. Troop leader Mal always will make a calm, but intentional close pass by me when he's leading the troop to another location. It's an acknowledgement and a cautionary greeting: "I'm watching you."
With Bibi the interactions are always calm, gentle and happen with an air of serenity.
I'll tell you an interesting story from today's observations that illustrate her demeanor very clearly.
The troop was on a raid today. I found them outside of the park boundaries, actually, on the fringe of the adjacent neighborhood. It's been raining heavily for several days here, and I'm more than certain that the macaques are desperate for high protein, high carbohydrate foods - the kinds easily found around humans.
Raids outside of the safety of the park are highly dangerous operations. Mal, of course, would lead the bandit group of juvenile and young adult monkeys, but the mothers with babies and the oldest macaques would probably be less likely to put themselves into the path of danger.
Bibi hung out on the border walls. She made no effort to join the raid, but stayed on the periphery and kept the troop in visual and hearing range.
When I came upon her, Bibi greeted me, hung out for a bit, and then showed me where to spot the rest of the troop.
I'm not kidding. Bibi made a deliberate jump up to a wall that I could look over, looked in the direction of the troop, then looked back at me, and repeated those actions until I slowly moved towards the wall to have a look.
Talk about goosebump awesomeness!!
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