Conservatoire Animalier
Conservatoire Animalier
Henry Quinque, a surgeon by trade, has been fascinated by life in all its forms since he was a boy. Fuelled by the success of his career and the help of his wife Lily, he acquired over the years a major collection of rare birds and primates. His major aim has always been to achieve breeding in captivity in order to try and raise the numbers of extremely endangered animals and he has been very successful, being the first in the world to obtain results in a number of cases. The collection, now managed by a non-profit organisation has what are probably the largest populations of Golden Headed Lion Tamarins and New Caledonia Kagu in the World.
Henry and Lily are good friends and I spend much time with them, helping them solve technical problems or link with English speaking organisations. Not having been designed for public visits, their enclosures favour the animal's well being at the expense of visibility and are really not good for photography. On the other hand, the tameness of some of the animals and the ground braking events taking place regularly at the collection have allowed me to take some interesting pictures. You can see a few of them in the "Quinque" portfolio. You'll also find more information about them and pictures by other photographers on their Web Site: www.quinque.org.
9 March 2006