The Meriwether

March 2024

By Jesse Nunan

A trip to Barbados several weeks ago led to many different adventures. In this month’s edition I will be sharing one that I think you will find a-peel-ing (hint: it’s about monkeys). Apologies for the banana related humor.

Trees shading a rocky pathway near a beach with an ocean and blue sky in the background.

While staying on the island, we took a day trip to a wildlife preserve in on the peak of the island. They’d advertised that you could see monkeys being fed.

A small monkey with black facial features and light fur on its body standing on a rocky ledge in a lush, green forest with tall trees and sunlight filtering through the leaves.

However, while we were expecting a fence or some distance to be in between us and the monkeys, it was a pretty big surprise when one of the employees dumped the fruits on the picnic table my dad and I were sitting at.

A group of people at a wildlife exhibit with monkeys. A girl and an older man are sitting at a table with food scraps and cut oranges. Two monkeys are on the table, one with a long tail and one sitting back. A sign reads, 'STOP! Monkeys are wild animals and can bite. Do not feed or try to touch the monkeys. Thank you!' There are other visitors in the background near a decorative iron gate and rocky wall.

After I got over the initial startle of sitting so close to these animals I was able to get some great content of them eating.

A monkey sitting on a sign eating a piece of red fruit with a rocky wall in the background.
A monkey sitting and grooming itself with its hand near its mouth.
A monkey holding a piece of fruit and sitting on a red and white 'STOP' sign, with a stone wall and greenery in the background.
A young monkey holding and eating a partially bitten red apple.

There was also an adorable pair sleeping above us in a tree.

Two monkeys climbing in a dense tree with green leaves.

Because I found those two so adorable I did a digital drawing of them.

A black and white line drawing of two lemurs clinging to a tree branch.

I did this by highlighting the dark spots of figures which created this contoured composition.

Hope you enjoyed the monkey content! More to come from the trip. Below are blocks and prints of the drawing and the photographs!