20/10/2026
Post from Carol from Monkey Helpline - we can relate as we have the same calls every other day. These are true facts and we all need to make an effort to live side by side. We cannot relocate them due to many reasons and the main ones stated below. Anyone that says they can or will remove them clearly does not know much about vervets or care for them at all.
"Can Monkey Helpline come and trap all these monkeys and relocate them somewhere else?" How often do I get asked this question! And the answer is always the same - "NO". I explain how a troop of monkeys is bonded to a territory that is actually the ancestral home of that particular troop. Generation after generation of female Vervet Monkeys have been born, lived and died in that territory, creating a matrilineal line of ascent that goes back countless generations. Simply put, female Vervet Monkeys never move away from their territory of birth, living and dying in that territory no matter how it is colonized and changed by humans.
So, when you see a troop of these monkeys in your garden or neighbourhood, know that THEY, with the exception of the mature adult males, are living in THEIR ancestral home and it is we humans who have invaded. ( I'll write about the dynamics of male Vervet Monkey life in my next post)
What this all boils down to is that when I answer "NO" to the question above, it is because troops of Vervet Monkeys CANNOT be relocated into a territory that is new to them. Firstly, there is no good reason to attempt this (I will explain this in more detail in a separate post), and, secondly, new areas where a "captured troops" of Vervet Monkeys could theoretically be relocated are rare as hens' teeth and if found would undoubtedly be used for rescued monkey rehabilitation (also to be covered in a future post).
In reality no-one needs to have a troop of Vervet Monkeys trapped and relocated. I have long ago stopped trying to apologise for the presence of monkeys in their own "home". People who find the presence of monkeys problematic should learn to live in harmonious co-existence with these amazing, in so many ways human-like, little animals, as do countless thousands of other people. My advice to those people who won't learn how to live with monkeys and find their presence intolerable, is very simple - "Go and live elsewhere where there are no monkeys whose presence you despise. The monkeys won't miss you!"
