Have you heard about the green monkey living in Africa?

The Vervet or ‘African green monkey’ (Cercopithecus aethiops), Tumbili in Swahili is next up in my series of primates living in Diani. A very common sight in Diani, like the Sykes and Baboons they come into daily human conflict, and can be considered pests over their opportunistic stealing of human food.

A Vervet monkey

Distribution:

The Vervet is a very versatile monkey able to adapt and survive in a wide range of habitats including savannah, woodland, riverine, lake-shore and coastal forests; although they normally don’t inhabit heavily forested areas or very open grasslands. They are widely distributed through Africa south of the Sahara desert and across Kenya; even in Nairobi. Vervets are equally at home on the ground and in the trees, which obviously aids their ability to adapt to different environments. 

Vervets in an open grassland environment

Anatomy: 

They are mainly a grey-brown colour with white under parts and a white fringed black face, long whitish cheek whiskers, white brow, black feet (like they walked in paint) and a black tip to their tail. Interestingly males have a light blue scrotum, red penis and red peri-anus and weigh around 4 to 6kg, measuring 40 to 60cm when adult. Where as the females weigh around 2 to 5kg and measure 30 to 50cm. The female breast can often have a bluish tinge to them. Infants have similar, but lighter colouration than adults, the most obvious difference being their lighter, pinkish faces. 

A female Vervet monkey

A baby Vervet showing the slight pinkness still in his face

The blue scrotum of a Vervet male

Diet: 

Vervets are omnivorous and like the Sykes are opportunistic feeders (like with human food). Their main diet is made up of flowers, fruits, seeds, roots, bark, gum, eggs, insects and small invertebrates. They will take human food and can be dangerous when tourists feed them. 

Social Structure: 

The group size is usually between 20-30 individuals with a linear dominance hierarchy among males and a kinship relationship among females. The Vervets have been documented to some complex communications that can be different for certain situations and getting different responses in return. For example, alarm calls for aerial predators differ from alarm calls from snakes (on the ground) – requiring the Vervets to look in different places for danger. 

A group of Vervets investigating someones garden

Grooming is an essential part of bonding and cleaning

Monkeys as pests: 

With the exception of the colobus the other monkeys in Diani, are opportunistic feeders, taking what food they can when they can, and will raid crops or steal food from kitchens in homes or hotels. Some local residents have appalling methods to deter these individuals: from throwing paint over them to stoning them or using bows and arrows. 

Although small in size they are not short on aggresion

This human-wildlife conflict is made worse when well meaning individuals giving monkeys food – as the monkeys come to associate humans with food. Men can generally rebuff monkeys who may approach them, but women and children are at risk of being bitten when they refuse to give monkeys food. 

Dogs do sometimes come into conflict with monkeys

To combat this, CC has developed a detailed guide on managing the pest problem and provides workshops and training sessions for hotels and private houses. We also hope that you can help us by explaining to others why monkeys must not be fed. 

Here is some Vervet yoga

As always the pictures are owned by the author and under their copyright. They are uploaded at a lower quality as my internet in Kenya is slow.

You can see all my photos of my time in Kenya on my Flickr page here -http://bit.ly/1dpb3gd

Or on my Facebook page here - www.facebook.com/diaryofaprimatologist

References: www.colobusconservation.org

Disclaimer: "The views and opinions expressed in the Diary of a Primatologist blog are purely my own and are not in any way linked to any organisations I may represent or work with unless otherwise stated. All photos are my own unless otherwise stated and a source will be provided where other photos are used; if they are yours and you would like them taken down then please just ask. The author retains full copyright for all content and photos and written permission is required before their use. The owner of the site is not liable for any content accessed through links posted."

Guest Blog Post: Saving Spider Monkeys from the Mexican Primate Pet Trade.

Jess Hooper is a primatologist who is just finishing her MSc in Primate Conservation at Oxford Brookes University in Oxford, England. Jess is working closely with a Mexican monkey sanctuary (Ecoparque el Fenix) to rehabilitate spider monkeys from the Mexican primate pet trade. Jetting off to Mexico soon Jess writes about the work she is about to embark on.

 

"I'm very excited to have been asked to give my first guest blog, and I thank Luke for this opportunity to share my current work with primate rehabilitation in Mexico." - Jess Hooper

                            

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Primate welfare

I wanted to write a little about the importance of primate welfare and rehabilitation for those monkeys and apes with low conservation value-i.e. those which have unknown genetic value, are psychologically compromised, unsuitable for breeding, and/or release. I strongly believe that it is our duty, as primatologists and as human beings, to provide the utmost of care to those whose fate we have been responsible for. It is the human-primates of this world that extract our primate cousins from the wild, pluck babies from their mother’s chests and sell them on within the various ill-controlled wildlife trades. The trade I wish to discuss in particular is the illegal primate pet trade within Southern America, namely Mexico.

The Mexican primate pet trade

Spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi) are an arboreal primate, endemic to Mexico. Pet spider monkeys are illegally captured and transported to cities where they are sold in unsavoury market conditions to become a pet. It is national demand which stokes this market-untouched by the CITES convention which only influences international wildlife trade.

Like chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), spider monkeys naturally exploit a fission-fusion society, whereby daily social groups vary in size and composition. Thus socialisation is fundamental to their psychological well being. A lack of intra-species socialisation whilst living as human-pets can cause severe implications to their development resulting in abnormal (or 'stereotypic') behaviour.

Spider monkey rehabilitation

I work closely with spider monkeys rescued and donated from the illegal pet trade at a Mexican monkey sanctuary Ecoparque el Fenix. I work to reduce stereotypic behaviours in ex-pet monkeys as well as to improve species-typical behaviour. Some monkeys I work with are unable to climb, the majority walk bipedally upon the ground like humans, and many are fearful towards other monkeys which they have never encountered before.

Nino, the monkey who walks bipedally like a human

I have taken a focal approach to studying these monkeys, to look at each monkey as an individual: with individual needs, past experiences, fears, and emotions. In doing so, I can understand them on a personal level, and determine which approach to use for each monkeys rehabilitation. Not all methods are suitable for every monkey. Some monkeys are unable to be socially integrated because the stress induces self-harming behaviour, whereas others benefit greatly from monkey company and quickly learn to cuddle, play and even share resources. Enrichment offers exercise to both the body and mind, swinging platforms encourage climbing and leaping behaviour, and novel enrichments provide stimulation.

Creating an enriched enclosure

Is it worth it?

Rehabilitation takes time, and there is limited support for such projects where the monkeys may never be ready for reintroduction. I desperately urge people to see primate rehabilitation as a separate issue from conservation-one of moral significance, one of responsibility. Only once we tackle the issues of rehabilitation can we bridge the gap between the welfare of abused individuals and conservation by restoring their conservation worth. These monkeys are still ambassadors of the forest and represent an educational tool of emotive power.

Spider monkeys

Meet the monkeys Jess is working with: ecoparqueelfenix.org

Keep informed with updates through her blog: http://primateworld.wordpress.com/ 

The pictures are owned by the author and under their copyright. 

Disclaimer:

"The views and opinions expressed in a guest blog post are that of the author and are not in any way linked to any organisations the site may represent or work with unless otherwise stated. The owner of the site is not liable for any content accessed through links posted."