Proboscis monkeys likely took to the water because 'it’s hard to live in a swamp without being able to swim,” says Lee Harding, chief scientist at SciWrite Environmental Sciences and an expert in proboscis monkeys. Rezeki's expedition discovered several monkeys on the island, suggesting the species is still hanging on. We thought that a video about these monkeys' swimming abilities would help bring some positive attention,' says Rezeki, who works with Sahabat Bekantan Indonesia, a nonprofit that works to protect proboscis monkeys, also called bekantan.ĭue to loss of their mangrove habitat and hunting, p roboscis monkeys are listed as endangered, with fewer than 7,000 animals left in the wild. 'The main primate in the area that people think of are orangutans. ( Read about swimming pigs and other surprising animals that love water.) To discover more about these water-loving primates, conservation biologist Amalia Rezeki recently spent a few weeks on Indonesian Borneo's Bakut Island filming the animals and their behavior in mangrove forests.
Proboscis monkeys might be best known for their giant, bulbous noses, but scientists are sniffing out another of these monkey’s unique attributes: their swimming abilities.
