Vervet Monkey: a two-minute wildlife lesson

Monkeys of Africa and Asia · day 4 of 7

Five facts

1. Vervets have a different alarm call for each of their enemies: leopards, eagles, pythons and baboons. The group knows exactly what is coming.
2. Babies learn all these calls just by watching and listening to the others. Nobody gives them lessons.
3. A mother knows her own baby from its scream alone. She turns towards the sound faster and looks for longer than other mothers.
4. People on the island of Santorini knew vervets around 2000 BC. The monkeys appear in ancient wall paintings found there.
5. After their mums, baby vervets prefer their grandmothers to any other grown-up female relative, such as an aunt.

The quiz

1. Why does a vervet give different alarm calls?

• To call friends to a meal
• To greet the sunrise
• To tell the group which predator it has seen (correct)
• To mark the edge of its territory

Each predator, such as a leopard or an eagle, gets its own distinct call.

2. How do young vervets learn their alarm calls?

• Just by watching and listening to others (correct)
• Through daily lessons from their mother
• By copying birdsong
• They never learn them

Infants learn the calls from observation alone, without being taught.

3. What is enough for a vervet mother to recognise her own baby?

• The colour of its tail
• Its scream (correct)
• Its footprints
• The pattern on its nose

Mothers can recognise their young by a scream alone.

4. On which island did people paint vervets in ancient frescoes around 2000 BC?

• Iceland
• Ireland
• Madagascar
• Santorini (correct)

Frescoes at Akrotiri on Santorini show the vervet was known there around 2000 BC.

5. After its mother, which adult female does a baby vervet prefer?

• Its grandmother (correct)
• Its aunt
• An unrelated female
• A female from another group

Babies prefer their grandmothers to other adult female relatives.

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