Vervet monkeys in Katavi

By Emmanuel Moshi, Guide - Chada Katavi

A light coloured monkey with a black face, the vervet monkey is a very common sight in the African savannah woodland. It adapts easily to many environments, being able to tolerate different types of habitats, including humid areas and even semi-desert.

The only difficulty seems to be in areas where there is no water for drinking and no trees for sleeping in at night. Since our camp Chada Katavi is surrounded by different kinds of trees including Tamarind, Bird plum, Rain tree, Borassus palm and many more, all these trees make the monkeys feel like they are in paradise.

Vervets change their daily activities according to the season. They travel a lot during the wet season because there is no need to defend territories, since the food is plentiful. Meanwhile, in the dry season, when the food is not easily available, most of their time is used for feeding, drinking and grooming.

Vervet monkeys in other areas are sometimes considered vermin, simply because they are good opportunistic feeders. They raid crops from farms, with farmers in some areas being allowed to shoot or poison them to reduce their numbers, but still their numbers in the Tanzanian parks are very high. My own view is that vervets are not pests, but are extraordinary animals that encourage people to be careful all the time, and avoid carelessly leaving food around. I regard them as comedians, that we can watch for free.

Chada Katavi provides a safe environment for the monkeys by allowing them to sleep in the trees where they cannot easily be preyed upon by predators. However, the negative side of it is that they force us to be careful with our food, particularly when we bring morning tea to the guest’s tents, as if the box lid is not closed properly you will find the cookies being enjoyed by the monkeys at the top of a tree.

I have also witnessed them patrolling around the mess tent to see if there is any food left. Sometimes they enter in to our lovely camp library, where people have afternoon tea before going on game drive. You will find the monkeys patrolling along the bookshelves: you might think they are looking for a nice book but, no, they are looking for left-overs.

I think that vervet monkeys deserve recognition for being good inspectors, very keen with their responsibility of finding food, and ensuring that we are all responsible and careful with controlling our waste!