Past Animal of the Months Archive Mainly ground-dwellers, vervets are widespread, found in African savannas from North to South. They shelter in forests that grow along rivers running through the grassland where they often forage. The stable core of the group is made up of related females and their youngsters.
Males transfer from troop to troop.
Our vervets have a spacious grassy hill and plenty of tree branches for the kids to play in. As you might expect, vervets eat a wide variety of foods, including fruits of all kinds, acacia seed pods and grass seeds, leaves and roots. Ants, termites, birds and eggs round out the diet. These small, rapidly maturing monkeys live about 30 years, unless they are taken by predators. They alertly watch for leopards, eagles, and large snakes and have a different alarm call for each kind of predator.