If you look at vervet monkeys you could be forgiven for thinking they are quite simple animals but these creatures are actually fascinating and smarter than you think! They are known to sit outside campsites or houses – where you would think they were just resting and watching you. It is true they are watching you – more specifically they are watching what you are doing. After observing for a while they work out how you open and close your house or tent. Then when they feel confident that you have gone out, they copy your actions and proceed to ransack the contents. It is fascinating that they know to observe and learn from us.
And interestingly enough, humans and monkeys have more in common than you would think. If you ever had to survive out in the bush, you would only have to observe the monkeys and see what they eat. Basically, whatever they eat, we humans can eat. But the same does not go for baboons – their stomach acids are much stronger than ours and so they can eat fruit that are very poisonous to us.
Since monkeys are small, light animals, they tend to take flight up into the trees when they are alarmed or threatened. From here they have a great vantage point to observe the threat – something that also gives us some great photo opportunities!
