Vervet monkey[1]
Vervet Monkey at Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)[2]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Primates
Family:	Cercopithecidae
Genus:	Chlorocebus
Species:	C. pygerythrus
Binomial name
Chlorocebus pygerythrus F. Cuvier, 1821
Vervet Monkey range

The vervet monkey (Chlorocebus pygerythrus), or simply vervet, is an Old World monkey of the family Cercopithecidae native to Africa. The term "vervet" is also used to refer to all the members of the genus Chlorocebus.

  Taxonomic classification

The vervet monkey was previously classified as Cercopithecus aethiops. The vervet and malbrouck have often been considered conspecific, or as subspecies of the widespread grivet.^[3]

There are five distinct subspecies of vervet monkey:^[2]

• Chlorocebus pygerythrus excubitor
• Chlorocebus pygerythrus hilgerti from southern Kenya^[4]
• Chlorocebus pygerythrus nesiotes
• Chlorocebus pygerythrus pygerythrus from South Africa, Botswana,^[4][5] Lesotho and Swaziland^[5]
• Chlorocebus pygerythrus rufoviridis from Mozambique^[4] and Uganda^[6] has a distinctly reddish coloured back which is darker towards the base of the tail.^[7]

  Physical description

  Adult male vervet monkey in South Africa

The vervet monkey has a black face with a white fringe of hair, while the overall body colour is mostly grizzled-grey.^[8] The males of all species have a pale blue scrotum and a red penis.^[9] The species exhibits sexual dimorphism, the males are larger in weight and body length. Adult males weigh between 3.9 and 8.0 kilograms (8.6 and 18 lb), averaging 5.5 kilograms (12 lb), and have a body length between 420 and 600 millimetres (17 and 24 in), averaging 490 millimetres (19 in) from the top of the head to the base of the tail. Adult females weigh between 3.4 and 5.3 kilograms (7.5 and 12 lb) and average 4.1 kilograms (9.0 lb), and measure between 300 and 495 millimetres (12 and 19.5 in), averaging 426 millimetres (16.8 in).^[7][10]

  Behaviour

  A troop of Vervet Monkeys in South Africa feeding on maize and other seeds

  Social structure

The vervet monkey is diurnal and social; living in groups of up to 72.^[11] There is a clear order of dominance among individuals within the group.

  Alarm calls

The vervet monkey uses different calls upon detecting different types of predators, including leopards, snakes and eagles. Infants appear to have an innate tendency to make these alarm calls, and adult monkeys seem to give positive reinforcement when their young make the right call, by repeating the alarm. Mothers have been reported to punish young giving the wrong call.^[12]

  Diet

  Young vervet Monkey in South Africa eating fruits of Harpephyllum caffrum

The vervet monkey eats a wide range of fruits, figs, leaves, seeds and flowers. It also eats birds' eggs and young chicks, and insects (grasshoppers and termites). In human inhabited environments it will eat bread and various crops; especially maize.

A list of some natural food plants and part of the plant eaten, in South Africa:^[7][13]

  Distribution and habitat

The vervet monkey ranges throughout much of Southern and East Africa, being found from Ethiopia, Somalia and extreme southern Sudan, to South Africa. It is not found west of the East African Rift or the Luangwa River,^[1] where it is replaced by the closely related malbrouck (C. cynosuros). The vervet monkey inhabits savanna, riverine woodland, coastal forest and mountains up to 4000 m (13,100 ft). They are adaptable and able to persist in secondary and/or highly fragmented vegetation, including cultivated areas, and sometimes are found living in both rural and urban environments.^[2]

Introduced vervets also occur in Barbados, Saint Kitts, and Nevis. Dania Beach, Florida is also home to about 20 vervets. ^[14]

  Conservation status

  An infant Vervet Monkey, South Africa

In spite of low predator populations in many areas where human development has encroached on wild territories, this species is killed by electricity pylons, vehicles, dogs, pellet guns, poison, and bullets and is trapped for traditional medicine, bush meat, and for biomedical research.^[15] The vervet monkey has a complex and fragile social system, its persecution is thought to have affected troop structures and diminishing numbers.

Multiple organisations are involved in vervet monkey conservation.

  In ancient history

This species was known in ancient Egypt including the Red Sea Mountains and the Nile Valley.^[16] From fresco artworks found in Akrotiri on the Mediterranean island of Santorini there is evidence that the vervet monkey was known to the inhabitants of this settlement around 2000 BC; this fact is most noted for evidence of early contact between Egypt and Akrotiri.^[17]

  Gallery

• 

  Front view of the skull of a Vervet Monkey

• 

  Side view of the skull

• 

  Vervet monkey female with a baby

• 

  Vervet monkeys in Samburu

• 

  Male Vervet Monkey at Lake Manyara National Park, Tanzania, showing blue scrotum.

• 

  Female and juvenile, Kruger Park, South Africa

• 

  References

  External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Chlorocebus pygerythrus

Wikispecies has information related to: Vervet Monkey

• Vervet Monkey calls
• BBC story: Vervet Monkeys raid farms
• Darwin Primate Group
• Vervet Monkey, Primate Info Net
• Computerized atlas of Vervet brain MRI