Monkey and Primates Safari in Africa

Vervet Monkey       Cercopithecus aethiops
Size:                            18 to 26 inches
Weight:                      7 to 17 pounds
Life Span:                  24 years
Habitat:                     Savanna, Woodland and high bush
Diet:                            Omnivorous
Gestation:                 51/2 months

Brief:

Vervet monkeys are small and black faced. They venture no further than about 500 yards from the trees, since they are vulnerable to a variety of predators and usually confine contact calls to chittering, chirping and chittering. They also scream and squeal when in danger.

Physical Characteristics:

The vervet is classified as a medium-sized to large monkey with the males weighing up to 17 pounds. The males are easily recognized by their turquoise blue scrota.  Its tail is usually held up, with the tip curving downward. Its arms and legs are approximately the same length.  Vervet monkeys vary in color, but generally the body is a greenish-olive or silvery-gray. The face, ears, hands, feet and tip of the tail are black, but a conspicuous white band on the forehead blends in with the short whiskers.

Habitat:

The vervet monkeys can live in mountain areas though it should be noted that they do not inhabit in rain forests. Their preferred habitat is acacia woodland along streams, rivers and lakes. Vervet monkeys are diurnal, sleeping and eating in trees from which they seldom venture.

Behaviour:

Vervet monkeys are always in stable social groups of 10 to 50 individuals that mainly consist of adult females and their immature offspring with the males freely moving in and out of the groups.

Within the troop, each adult female is the center of a small family network. Females who have reached puberty generally stay in the troop.
Vervets just as another other primate spend several hours a day removing dirt and parasites from one another's fur.

Diet:

Vervets rarely drink water. However, they eat young shoots, leaves, flowers, fruit, roots, bulbs and grass. They also eat baby birds, insects, eggs, grubs and in some rare cases hares and rodents.

Parenting:

After a birth, the mother (vervet) licks the infant clean, bites off the umbilical cord and eats the afterbirth. The newborn has black hair and a pink face; it will be 3 or 4 months before it acquires adult coloration. The infant spends the first week of life clinging to its mother's stomach. After about the third week, it begins to move about by itself and attempts to play with other young monkeys.

Infant vervet monkeys are suckled for about 4 months. When they become adept at feeding themselves solid food, the weaning process begins, although it may not be completed until the vervet is 1 year old. Most Vervet mothers will not allow young or even other adult females to carry or hold their infants.

Close social bonds with female relatives begin to develop in infancy, relationships thought to endure throughout life. Infants are of great interest to the other monkeys in the troop; sub adult females do everything possible to be allowed to groom or hold a new infant.

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