VERVET MONKEYS

THE URBAN ANIMAL FRUIT THIEF AND PEST.
Notes taken from..........https://www.sanbi.org/creature/vervet-monkey

Safety in numbers. Living in a large family group has its advantages. They can defend themselves and their young more effectively against predators and rival groups that may want to take over their feeding grounds. Their ability to sound the alarm for potential threats from the ground and air makes them very effective at avoiding predators.

They have cheek pouches for storing food. The vervet monkey’s colour vision allows it to distinguish between ripe and unripe fruit.

Vervet monkeys play an important role in the environment and natural ecosystems. They act as an agent for seed dispersal. The seeds are ingested as food and pass through the monkey’s digestive system intact and are excreted some distance away from where they were originally consumed. It was found that vervet monkeys can play an important role as seed dispersal agents to rehabilitate disturbed areas, for example in dune mining rehabilitation projects in Richards’s Bay in KwaZulu-Natal, Vervet monkeys played a major role in the rehabilitation of these areas by ensuring that the indigenous vegetation was re-established in areas where the vegetation had been completely destroyed.

Vervet monkeys have been used for scientific research since the 1950s. They are still used to produce vaccines for polio and smallpox. They are also important in studying high blood pressure and AIDS. People use their skin to create traditional Zulu and Swati male clothes. Some people hunt them and sell the meat. As urban areas have spread and the natural habitat that they depend on has been removed and reduced, vervet monkeys have increasingly become a problem in some areas in South Africa. They raid dustbins and homes looking for food and damage plants and vegetables growing in gardens. Solving this human–monkey conflict in a way that is both effective and ethical is not easy.

Vervet monkeys are seasonal breeders and mate during a specific time of the year. The mating season varies somewhat with geographical location, but occurs between April and June and offspring are born after the rainy season, when there is plenty of food available. Females are sexually mature at four years and give birth for the first time around the age of five. In captivity, females mature more quickly and can give birth at as young as two years of age. Female vervet monkeys show no external signs of ovulation and their reproductive cycle is about 32.5 days. Males reach sexual maturity at around five years of age, but do not achieve full adult weight until they are six years old; limiting the opportunity for mating before then. Vervet gestation lasts 163 to 165 days.

All photos taken with my Samsung Celphone