Samara Private Game Reserve - Vervet Monkey Research

One of the karoo’s many surprises is that it is home to a large number of vervet monkeys. These small primates, with their grey bodies and black faces, belong to a group of monkeys more commonly associated with the forests of tropical Africa. They themselves, however, are adapted to a semi-terrestrial, forest-edge niche and this has allowed them to spread southwards along narrow strips of riverine woodland, right into the karoo itself. Here they must somehow deal with the worst that Africa can throw at them.

They face, amongst other things, boiling summers, freezing winters and rivers that rarely provide them with water. Yet, not only do they survive, they positively thrive under this adversity. Climate change is already making itself felt in the region, and with the prospect of harsher conditions to come, the questions of how they manage to do so, and what the consequences are for their complex social lives, have become central to an understanding of what the future holds for arid country ecosystems.

This issue has brought a consortium of professors and students from five universities, spread over three continents, to Samara in search of some answers. Leslie Brown (UNISA, South Africa) is busy mapping the vegetation used by vervets and determining the amount of food available to them. Peter Henzi, Louise Barrett and Stefan Kienzle (Lethbridge, Canada) are working to understand how the need to regulate body temperature and avoid predators while also getting enough to eat and drink, drives the monkeys’ use of space across the seasons. David Perrett (St. Andrews, Scotland) and Leslie Knapp are using genetic and physical markers to identify stress responses and the ability of the animals to deal with disease. Lastly, David Lusseau (Aberdeen, Scotland), together with the Canadians, is addressing the social consequences of life in this difficult environment.

The work began in 2008 and Samara has already proved itself to be the ideal research laboratory in which to tackle these questions. First, as a large protected area, it provides a useful range of different habitats and micro-climates while, second, its acacia woodland not only suits vervets down to the ground but also confines them to the rivers. The consequence of this is that - despite the harshness of the environment - their average troop size, at about 40 individuals, is the largest yet recorded for the species. This is merely the first of the surprises that the research has uncovered. Following hard on its heels is the recent discovery that, when water is unavailable, the animals are able to go without drinking for at least a month, which is a record for a monkey.