Species profile
About the vervet monkey
Vervets are the small grey monkeys with coal-black faces and white brows that occupy nearly every acacia and riverine woodland in Tanzania. They are entirely at home around camps, which makes them easy to watch and occasionally too bold.
Their scientific fame rests on their alarm calls. Research in East Africa showed that vervets use different calls for leopard, eagle and snake, and that hearing each one makes the troop respond in the specific way that escapes that predator — climbing, looking up, or standing to scan the ground. It was among the first solid evidence of semantic communication in a wild animal.
Life in the wild
Behavior & relationships
Behavior
Diurnal, spending time both in trees and on the ground. Sleeps in tall trees and uses distinct alarm calls for different classes of predator.
Social life
Troops of roughly ten to fifty with a female dominance hierarchy that daughters inherit; males disperse to neighbouring troops at maturity.
What makes it remarkable
Special features
Predator-specific alarm calls, and the vivid blue and scarlet colouring on adult males that signals status within the troop.
