© Stephanie Mercier
The UVP conducts research on a semi-urban population of vervet monkeys at Simbithi eco-estate: a unique, eco-friendly residential community that co-exists harmoniously with wildlife and nature in Ballito.
Today urbanisation is not only the most common but also the most extreme form of environmental change for wildlife. Whilst many species go extinct, we do not yet understand why some animals thrive in human altered environments. Renowned for their opportunistic diet and great behavioural flexibility, vervet monkeys adapt very well to fast-changing human-altered environments, such as residential and agricultural areas, where they often exploit human food sources. With increasing urbanisation, interactions between humans and vervets have intensified, creating problems for both parties. At the UVP, we are studying which behavioural traits are involved in, or affected by successful adaptation in vervet monkeys, in order to understand and predict the ongoing impacts of urbanisation on monkey populations. With our research we aim at better understanding how different environments affect both cognitive and behavioural development in primates.
Today urbanisation is not only the most common but also the most extreme form of environmental change for wildlife. Whilst many species go extinct, we do not yet understand why some animals thrive in human altered environments. Renowned for their opportunistic diet and great behavioural flexibility, vervet monkeys adapt very well to fast-changing human-altered environments, such as residential and agricultural areas, where they often exploit human food sources. With increasing urbanisation, interactions between humans and vervets have intensified, creating problems for both parties. At the UVP, we are studying which behavioural traits are involved in, or affected by successful adaptation in vervet monkeys, in order to understand and predict the ongoing impacts of urbanisation on monkey populations. With our research we aim at better understanding how different environments affect both cognitive and behavioural development in primates.
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By collaborating with the iNkawu Vervet Project, which lies within the same South African province of KwaZulu-Natal (Mawana Game Reserve), we can assess how urbanisation is changing the behavioural repertoires of vervet monkeys, presenting a new comparative model system to study cognitive flexibility under anthropogenic changes in the primate taxa. To do so, we are using similar methods consisting of natural observations, field experiments and faecal samples for best possible systematic and empirical comparisons to be made.
One of the main goals of UVP is to also collect specific data around human-vervet interactions to investigate the impact of urbanisation on the vervet monkeys' behaviour and cognition. Because our monkeys are sharing their habitat with the residents at the Simbithi Eco-Estate, this co-existence also provides us an excellent study situation to integrate a citizen science approach to the field of primate cognition. Since the start of UVP in November 2022, the residents at our study site are actively involved in our data collection (see citizen science below).
One of the main goals of UVP is to also collect specific data around human-vervet interactions to investigate the impact of urbanisation on the vervet monkeys' behaviour and cognition. Because our monkeys are sharing their habitat with the residents at the Simbithi Eco-Estate, this co-existence also provides us an excellent study situation to integrate a citizen science approach to the field of primate cognition. Since the start of UVP in November 2022, the residents at our study site are actively involved in our data collection (see citizen science below).
Ongoing projects
Does urbanisation boost curiosity and exploration in vervet monkeys?
Results from Forss et al (2021) showing participation of captive and wild (habituated and unhabituated) vervet monkeys to novel objects' experiments.
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The extent to which a species is successfully adapting to environmental changes depends both on its behavioural and cognitive flexibility. Since vervet monkeys are one of relatively few primate species that have successfully adapted to urban environments, they make for an ideal species to study these plastic traits. A within-species approach that compares motivational cognitive traits (exploration and curiosity) in urban living populations with wild and captive populations will help us disentangle their motivational changes due to different experiences in these environments.
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Lindsey Ellington, a master student from the Netherlands, reproducing the same experiments in Simbithi.
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Primate cognition in an urban world
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Exposure to human facilities provides urban monkeys with different knowledge regarding materials and artefacts. A previous study on wild vervet monkeys using an experimental paradigm successfully showed that this species can learn how to open boxes in two different ways, highlighting the importance of social information use when learning foraging techniques in this species. In the wild, monkeys mostly copied the techniques used by high-ranking individuals (Canteloup et al, 2020) suggesting a social learning bias. An ongoing project is to replicate these experiments at UVP, to investigate whether the experience effects gained in an urban habitat improve innovative foraging abilities in vervet monkeys. In addition, we are studying whether independent learning becomes more frequent when monkeys are familiar with exposed materials and tasks, thus, to examine whether social transmission is influenced by the skill levels of a given task.
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Experiments conducted in Mawana Game Reserve shoing an adult female opening the box with the “lift” technique (left), and a juvenile male opening the box using the “pull” technique (right). © Charlotte Canteloup
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Human-Vervet interactions
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© Stephanie Mercier
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In this part of the project, we are interested in how elements of the urban environment (presence of dogs, bird feeders, water pond, community centres etc...) influence the behaviours of vervet monkeys. We are also interested to investigate how positive (receiving/stealing food) or negative (being chased) interactions with humans may impact the monkeys' ranging patterns. Collecting focal data on individuals from two target groups (Acacia & Savanna), we can address questions like how urban elements impacts behaviour throughout different life stages, and describe what elements attract the monkeys the most, or repel them the more efficiently. This part of the UVP is combining data sets gathered through our citizen science approach as well as detailed focal follows.
Citizen Science
Get involved! If you are a resident in Simbithi and you would like to take part in our research, please contact Stephanie or sign up in our WhatsApp group, all contributions are very valuable to us!
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Since the vervet monkeys here are sharing their habitat with humans, we are closely collaborating with the residents living in Simbithi eco-estate. The citizen science approach presents a significant part in our research, and we are truly thankful to have so many interested and collaborative people involved. This cooperation takes form in a variety of ways. First, through a WhatsApp group where we receive multiple data points daily from inhabitants and their monkey sightings. This offers us detailed information on the monkeys ranging routines and behaviours through the entire estate, giving us an idea about the number of groups present and the evolution of the whole population’s demography etc. Thanks to the active involvement of Simbithi residents, we can build up a large data base including data points and frequencies, we researchers alone couldn’t achieve. Second, by allowing us to walk near their properties and observe what happens there enable us to collect detailed ad libitum natural observations. Finally, through questionnaires we collect detailed data on the interactions between residents and the wildlife living around their property. This will help us to investigate what attracts monkeys to specific houses and what repel them from others, hopefully leading to useful advice in order to improve human-wildlife conflicts here and in South Africa.
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