Last Sunday I went to a different zoo than the one I usually visit. They opened their new lemur enclosure for the first time and I had to be there.

Before the enclosure was opened at 11am I went to see their Barbary macaque enclosure though. It is open as well, so you can go in there to hang out with some stinking, disgusting and slightly dangerous monkeys.

monkey by Mathias Appel, auf Flickr

There was a sign at the entrance that said that they know how to get into bags and backpacks and that they are known to steal stuff from visitors. You are adviced to take off your hat and glasses and to keep everything closed. So I put everything away, put my bottle of Coke where I usually keep my camera (I had it hanging from my shoulder so that place was free) and tied the two zippers of my backpack together.

Spoiler alert: That wasn't enough. Obviously.

At first everything went well enough. One of the monkeys had an eye on my backpack and kept coming over to look at it, but he didn't really dare to come close enough to open it.
When I sat down with my backpack on my back to take the photo I posted above I suddenly felt that one of the monkeys jumped onto my backpack. I gently tried to get him off by poking him a little and by shaking my backpack a little. I really wanted to get him off quickly, I didn't want them to shit on my head...

Then I suddenly heard a zipper opening... And when I turned around a saw a monkey running up a tree with my food. Yay. At least he didn't take my tablet which I had in there.

Their new lemur enclosure was great though. Besides a group of ring-tailed lemurs they also have crowned lemurs, which I have never shot before.

lemur by Mathias Appel, auf Flickr

Female:

lemur by Mathias Appel, auf Flickr

Male:

lemur by Mathias Appel, auf Flickr

Their ring-tailed lemurs are adorable as well:

lemur by Mathias Appel, auf Flickr

It's an all male group of 11 animals. They are all still very young so they play around a lot, it was great