A SEVEN-MONTH-OLD vervet monkey was the latest victim to be claimed on the M4 on Wednesday last week. Last year, Monkey Helpline’s Steve Smit raised concern over the danger the busy road posed to the primate population.
Now the organisation hopes to get approval from the eThekwini Municipality to erect rope bridges across the M4 that could reduce the monkey massacre along the freeway.
On Thursday, Smit told the Northglen News they collected 14 adults, 10 from a single troop, on Tuesday.
“The stretch of road between Broadway and Virginia is a particularly dangerous spot. Not a week goes by that we are not called to pick up a dead or injured monkey on that stretch of road,” he said.
While Smit expressed no ill-will towards motorists, he did say that the issue was man-made. “We can’t blame the drivers. It is a freeway and it is virtually impossible to stop when driving at 100km/h. However, the problem stems from the fact that the road has been built in between the monkeys’ foraging routes,” he said.
What’s more, he said, was that the current drought has heightened the vervet’s plight as they have significantly less palatable water sources, which means they are driven into residential areas to seek hydration from water features, pools and even pets’ water bowls.
In the past, Smit had rejected the use of bridges as a feasible solution because the vervets are not ‘strictly arboreal’, which means they forage for food along the ground as well as in the trees. The primates could still run into traffic while foraging on the ground.
However, the numerous deaths have pushed him to reconsider the option. “Although it will not eradicate the problem, it will create some relief as the monkeys become accustomed to the ropes,” he said.
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