Vervet monkeys are a species of primates that live primarily in Eastern Africa. The vervet monkey is a social animal that lives in groups called troops and stays with their troop for life.

Behaviors

Vervets are very social animals and spend most of their lives with others. They have a strict hierarchy. The dominant male in the group leads them. This male also has first access to food and can mate with all females in the group (unless he is sterile).

Dominant males will aggressively defend their position against any other males who want to take their place. When females become pregnant, they will move into their sleeping nests away from the group for about seven months until they give birth.

How To Spot a Vervet Monkey

Vervet monkeys live in groups of 10-50 in many different habitats, from forests and savanna to urban areas. The males and females look similar, but the females have distinctive black noses.

You can find vervet monkeys on the ground. They prefer to stay close to the forest edge or near water sources. A commonplace you might see them is on low-hanging branches where they can go up onto all fours and then leap down onto the ground if a predator threatens them.

Habitat

One of the vervet monkey’s favorite places to live are deep forest areas, and they also live near rivers and lakes. They can survive any climate change that occurs within the areas of their living.

Food

Their diet consists of fruit, leaves, flowers, shoots, bark, buds and insects, which they gather from trees or the ground if needed.

Acts As Pests

They tend to steal crops like corn, sugar cane and soybeans from the fields of farmers. To minimize their food damage, farmers have tried different methods such as shooting at the monkeys or installing traps.

How They Communicate

Vervets have a complex set of signals and gestures they use to communicate with one another. These include facial expressions, body movements, and general vocalizations.

These monkeys communicate with sounds and gestures when they are trying to distract predators or hunt prey. They use visual communication to express dominance or submission by making faces that show their teeth; you can see this kind of behavior during mating season.