Big Picture: Angry Monkey

While documenting Japanese Macaques in the Honshu region of Japan, photographer Jami Tarris captured an unusual moment between a mother and baby monkey: "The mother was resting on the side of the hot spring and was dozing. The youngster had been playing with some of the other infants. After a while, he swam over to her. She was facing me on the wall while holding on with her feet and hands when he touched her and tried to nuzzle in to nurse. He wanted to get in an empty space between her front side and the wall - I have observed many macaque mothers nursing their young in this position.
The mother became instantly aggressive with him as if he didn’t belong to her….which he did. She was violent by pushing him beneath the water and holding him under. He would come up and gasp for air before she would push his head down again. You can see the look on the little guy's face as he emerged from the water, squealing loudly.
After a few minutes of this she stopped and he kept a distance from her (half a meter at the most) until he finally approached her once more as I held my breath. She then allowed him to nurse." See more of Jami's Japanese Macaque photos