The Vervet Monkey is a Good Baby sitter!
It is said that monkeys are brothers to human beings. It is crystal clear that mothers love their babies even though some abandon them. Believe it or not, there is an animal in Uganda Wildlife Education Centre, Entebbe whose mother’s love triples that of human mothers!
This human-like creature is called a Vervet Monkey scientifically called “Cercopithecus”. The business of recruiting baby sitters is a “taboo” to a Vervet monkey. The Vervet monkey cannot leave its kid with anyone, nor can it let a fellow monkey touch it.
Even the father cannot get a chance of holding its offspring! The mother remains with its baby giving it all the care until it is one month old. That’s when another monkey can touch it. It even climbs trees while carrying its child.
Do human being (mothers) love their babies this much?
The Vervet monkeys are commonly known as green monkeys. When the Vervet monkey delivers, many other females come and sit around it to see the baby, but they will not touch on it! Vervet monkeys are hurt when they lose their off springs like human beings do. They will keep holding the corpse until the body rots and utterly disintegrates.
The young Vervets get a hold of their mothers firmly and cannot fall off even if their mother rans at her highest speed limit.
The Vervet monkeys are green monkeys. In the Janthan Kingdoms book called, “The Kingdom field to African Animals,” these animals are called “Swah”, “Tumbili” and “Ngedere,” among others. They are long tailed monkeys with a grizzled grey and olive back, crown and outer limb. Hands and feet are red, the white brow and cheeks join to frame the black face.
The scrotum is turquoise or lapis blue.
Vervet Monkeys measurement are 48 to 75 cms tall, females are 3.5 to 5 kgs and males are 4 to 8 kgs according to Jonathan.
Their gestation period is four months. They produce one baby and occasionally twins. Vervets have a lifespan of 20 years, they live in multi-male troops and both sexes are territorial. They spend most of their time on the ground but rarely on trees for food and security.
The staple food for Vervets are the seeds, flowers, foliage and gum of acacia and albizia as well as the fruits of figs and buffalo thorn. (ziziphus).
They wake up early in the morning around 5: 30 am and start looking for food. They starve when it is raining because they fear rainfall.
Vervet monkeys are fearless and human-friendly animals that love tourists. When one approaches them, they also come nearer and stare at him or her. After a while, the lovely animal performs acrobatic feats for you free of charge!
They are normally 30 in groups and they stay in troops (cluster of Vervets). “The Vervet monkeys are political n the sharing of resources just like our leaders. When the female produces males, the only old-dominant male in the group kills them to reduce on competition in his kingdom.” Alternatively, when those male babies become middle-aged, the old male kicks them off to go and form their own territory somewhere.
When another male Vervet monkey comes from a different troop, it will fight the king and whoever wins the battle, takes over the governance. The aged and weak male Vervets form their own troop called the “bachelor’s group”. Vervet carry their food in their hands which are also used as front legs. They peel and chew a yellow banana just like human beings do!
When you visit the Vervet monkeys, don’t dare feed them, otherwise, you will regret it after sustaining serious injuries. They will eat whatever you have given them and humbly ask for more, using signs. Should you fail to provide more, they will suddenly invade you and start battering and scratching you all over your body!
If you hit one, it will scream, the squall made in the process will provoke other Vervets to come quickly and gather around you.
They immediately organize themselves and start beating you up. Young Vervets are very curious, if another is eating something, they snatch it like human kids do and start closely looking at it. These young ones are fond of grooming their colleagues. During scarcity of food, the old Vervets eat up young ones, small birds and reptiles to sustain a living. In case of a stranger (un known animal), the king who is always alert, climbs up the tree and warns the school by shouting out “Chaa”. it does this in a low voice but deeply reverberating tone. They all climb up in response. They fear snakes and if one of them sees the snake, it makes a specific sound like a “cough” and all of them will be seen coming closer to each other.
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