Just a few of the many shots I captured of Ethiopia's Gelada baboons. Ironically, despite sharing few similarities to baboons, these are not baboons.
They are considered old world monkeys, which only live in Ethiopia, and are the last living members of the genus Theropithecus.
They fit in perfectly with the highland terrain and if careful, you can spend hours watching them dig up their food. I was lucky enough to watch them for a few hours without them noticing...or rather, caring that I was around.
Again, I chose to ignore my fears. This group, or Congress, of monkeys, were resting at around 3900-4000m. Which meant a lot of hiking and a lot of narrow pathways to the top. I questioned myself many times but kept myself from giving up.
The climb wasn't difficult it was more of the elevation and the lack of control I felt that made me nervous. Despite it, I knew what was waiting and didn't want to miss it.
We were really hoping to catch the Walia Ibex along with the rare leopard, but we lucked out.
One of my goals in life is to become a full-time Natgeo photography capturing wildlife all over the globe and testing my boundaries. Just taking one step at a time.