Strictly Come Dancing!

Strictly Come Dancing!

 

Verreaux’s Sifakas are incredibly adapted for arboreal life. They have very strong and long hind legs and shorter arms to enable them to leap vertically from tree to tree with astounding grace, power and precision. But what happens when they need to travel from one patch of trees to the next and it’s too far to leap? Other lemurs simply walk on all fours but the Sifaka’s special adaptations don’t allow this. So instead they hop comically on their hind legs, much like how human children “gallop” to imitate a horse. And they totally look like they are dancing, especially when freezing those moments in a photograph. I photographed this Verreaux’s Sifaka in Berenty, Madagascar, the best place to see them “dance”.  If you have seen any of the BBC documentaries featuring these Sifakas chances are they were filmed right here.

Techs:  Canon 7D | Canon 300 2.8 IS II | f/2.8 | 1/8000s | ISO 200