Afi Mountain Drill Ranch – Drill Monkeys
The Road Chose Me Volume 2 OUT NOW!!
The Road Chose Me Volume 2: Three years and 54,000 miles around Africa
(My Nigeria crossing starts with the story Into Nigeria. You should begin reading there)
The Drills live in huge electrified enclosures where they are fed twice a day – usually papaya, mangoes, advocates and beans wrapped in leaves (which they particularly love). The males are enormous, and the females quite small.
Their heads sometimes look out of proportion to their bodies
Small female hiding from the big males
The food shack at the ranch is electrified because some of the males have figured out how to climb out of their enclosure and repeatedly wander into the main camp area. Walking around I often bump into them, though they are always scared of me and run away when I lift my arms or step towards them. It’s hilarious to watch at feeding time as the escapees line up to climb back into the enclosure to be fed before escaping again. The drills are not dangerous, so preventing them escaping is not a huge priority.
Eating lunch
Catching food thrown to him
The whole area is extremely peaceful, and it feels great to wake up in the morning knowing I will be sleeping in the same place. Mercifully the temperature drops overnight and the humidity is not completely insane, so sleep is possible.
This guy is big. Really big
Baby hanging on tight
Still tons more photos to come.
Day seven in Nigeria.
Success.
-Dan
Hi Dan,
Thanks as always for the educational updates. I always appreciate ending the day with more knowledge than the last. The pictures are awesome…so I can just imagine the real life version. Stay healthy..stay calm..and Jeep on! (Hmmm..now that belongs on a Jeep tee!)
-Chris
“where they are fed twice a day – usually papaya, mangoes, advocates and beans”
They feed them ADVOCATES? Who like drill monkeys THAT much?
haha, yeah, that’s how it works in the mountains of Nigeria 😉
-Dan