With the mating season fast approaching, our males are getting ready! Dominance hierarchy is important for vervets, and for males, the alpha tires to minimise mating access of lower-ranking males to the females in his groups. Being the top-dog (or vervet!) provides the alpha with the best breeding opportunities. We have noticed an increase in the number of male-male aggression’s, as they try and assert their dominance within the group and compete for the best positions within the hierarchy.

Some of our males are also starting to move between groups. Vervet male’s usually move between groups several times throughout their lifetime and female’s remain with their family group. So every few years male’s tend to move on to find a new group (usually a neighboring group) to find new mates. This means they often come in at the bottom of the ladder and have to assert their dominance over time and climb the hierarchy. We also find that male’s who have more female friends climb the dominance ladder fast due to female assistance in fights. So new male’s must try to develop strong ties with females as well as win fights with other males. Soon we may have a few new faces in our study groups and might lose a few friends to our neighboring groups.

Until next time

Lucy 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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