What an exciting past week this was at Samara!

The summer storms have been coming in and the Melk River is flowing again. We had several thunderstorms this past week, which is bringing a lot of water in for the Vervets.

Although a bit intimidating, when the thunder and lightning come close to our field site, it is exciting to watch the Vervets’ reactions. Often when the thunder is building and getting intense, the Vervets will start calling at it. They will also begin to run and to find shrubs to take cover in. Once the weather has cleared up they fall back into their usual routine pretty quickly.

Since some of the younger monkeys have grown up in the drought, they are not used to the river flowing. It is almost amusing to see the young ones struggling to cross, waiting on one side while calling for their mothers. Soon enough they learn the rock-hopping technique for river-crossing. The more intrepid opt for another strategy – full-blown swimming!

The forecast is predicting more rain for next week, so we hope the river keeps flowing!

Until next time,

Chloe 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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