A day filled with doucs

When I looked through the binoculars I met a pair of almost-human eyes glaring back at me. It was an odd sensation. The eyes were haunting: dark, penetrating, they burned with an intensity that sent a shiver through my body. But it was a shiver of pure pleasure because I was face-to-face with one of the most spectacular primates on the planet: the red-shanked douc langur. As I gazed at the langur, I wondered, yet again, how evolution could have concocted such a fantastic-looking species. Long, white whiskers framed an orange-tinted face, ivory-clad forearms ended in jet-black hands, and velvety legs that blazed a fierce vermillion. It is a creature too incredible, too beautiful, to be real. And yet there it was. For several minutes I admired the doucs as they browsed. Then, with a rustling of branches and leaves, the group moved off, loping long-armed through the canopy. The forest was still again. Huy, an expert on red-shanked doucs and our guide for the day, smiled and suggested that we move on. He said there was another group that lived nearby, and that with any luck, we’d get a good view of the dominant male. I nodded and lowered my binoculars. The truck growled to life and we set off…

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