Although vervets are born not needing much encouragement to drink their mother’s milk, they spend a good deal of their juvenile period learning what they can and cannot eat.

Hanging out with mum and their older siblings gives them opportunities to witness what others are eating and learn to eat it as well. Different vervet troops across South Africa have access to different kinds of foods, and it’s up the individuals in these troops to figure out what is and isn’t good to eat.

The vervet monkey diet is completely natural, they are able to live off what they can forage in the Karoo. Although the younger vervets learn most about what they can eat from their peers and adults, sometimes they come across something new or rare and have to figure out what to do with it.

This week Gatsby, a 2-year-old on River Bend Mob, found a very colorful insect that he wasn’t sure what to do with. He spent a long time inspecting it, holding its wings and antennae and smelling it. He decided against trying to eat it in the end, after an older juvenile Fina passed by and didn’t seem too interested. Perhaps if Fina tried to take it from him he would have thought it was a delicious treat! The insect walked away unharmed and Gatsby took a long afternoon nap.

Until next time,

Christina and the Verveteers

The Vervet Monkey research project is a collaboration between a number of international universities. The project has been based at Samara Private Game Reserve in the Great Karoo since 2008. The aim of the project is to investigate the adaptations of these fascinating monkeys to climatic changes.

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