Binturong — Borneo Rainforest Night Portrait
238.76 €
A binturong (bearcat) photographed at night in Danum Valley, Borneo — the Southeast Asian carnivore in a rainforest fig tree, the prehensile tail gripping the branch, the distinctive shaggy black fur and white-tipped ears in flash lighting.
Description
The binturong — also known as the bearcat — is one of Southeast Asia’s most rarely photographed nocturnal mammals, its combination of nocturnal habits, dense rainforest habitat, and canopy-dwelling lifestyle making field photography extremely difficult. This image was made during a night walk in Danum Valley Conservation Area with authorised researcher guides, the binturong located feeding in a fig tree by its distinctive popcorn-scent marking of the branches. The image was made using a single off-camera flash positioned to the side of the camera to create directional modelling light that reveals the animal’s texture without the flat-face quality of direct ring flash. The prehensile tail — one of only two carnivores with this adaptation — is visible gripping the fig branch, the coarse black fur and the white ear tips that are the species’ most distinctive facial feature clearly defined.
