Understanding the behaviour of vervet monkeys
While one person is seemingly being kind to an animal, the same animal is seen as vermin by another heartless person and at the end of the day the poor monkey suffers.
There is certainly a love hate relationship between humans and vervet monkeys.
As a result of this topic, Warren Dick has been very reluctant to write about it. According to him, whether you love or hate them, a lot of their behavioural problems are a direct result of humans.
“We destroy their homes to make our own and then we get upset when they raid our kitchen or upturn our trash can,” he said.
Vervet monkeys share many human like qualities including hypertension, anxiety and even social or dependent alcohol use. They are very social animals, living in groups ranging from 10 to 70 individuals and they have different hierarchies between males and females. Males usually move off to neighbouring groups once they reach sexual maturity.
They also have quite an extensive vocabulary, including differing calls for different types of predators.
Babies pick up their vocabulary as they grow and come to learn what different calls mean. Like humans, individuals can recognise each other just from the sound of their voice.
Mothers know their babies’ voice and will quickly respond to alarm calls from her own child rather than another.
Within a few days of a new baby being born, each member of the tribe has at least one chance to go see, smell and even touch the new baby. In well established groups, mothers often leave their babies in the care of immature females (teenagers) within the troop.
This not only gives the mother a break, but also gives younger females the opportunity to learn about baby care before having one of her own. Troops that have this kind of mothering technique often have a much better survival rate than those that don’t.
“As much as I love wildlife and even monkeys, I never encourage the feeding of monkeys. While one person is seemingly being kind to an animal, the same animal is seen as vermin by another heartless person and at the end of the day the poor monkey suffers. Feeding monkeys habituates them to humans, giving them a sense of entitlement, making conflict inevitable.”
An unfortunate fact is that almost every monkey living in residential areas have at least two or three led pellets in their bodies from a pellet gun.
It is a criminal offence to fire a pellet gun at any animal and if caught you can face a hefty fine or imprisonment. Report animal abuse to the SPCA.
“For those who insist on feeding the monkeys, instead of feeding by hand or putting the food in your garden, rather take the food to a nearby park and leave it there for the monkeys to find in their normal routine of hunting for food. This way humans are not associated with the food given,” Dick suggested.
Contact Warren to have some of your interesting spiders, snakes or other wildlife identified, call or WhatsApp him on 072-211-0353. Follow the conversation on Facebook, Warren’s Small World.
