BY KATE
THE VERVET MONKEY Hey! Do you want to know about the vervet monkey? Well if you do, you should definitely read this! All the stuff you could know is in this article. You’d be amazed how long they can live! Vervets can live a lot longer than most monkeys. So come on, lets READ!
MOVING WELL The vervet mostly bounds or gallops, but it hops to see over the grass. When they do this, they do it in slow motion because they do it slow. They are so slow because of their clumsy legs.
LOOKING GOOD Vervet monkey’s colors blend in with a lot of nature. These monkeys tend to be very territorial. They swing from tree to tree, making a loud kek kek kek kek sound to mark their territory. They are usually a dull green or a silvery gray. Their stomach is a bright blue, their tails are held up with the tip curved down. Its arms and legs are very long and exactly the same length. The male’s strontium is bright blue, that’s how they recognize them. The male is usually a bit bigger than YUM AND YUK The vervets mostly eat the female. They are 18 to 26 inches bark off the trees, but it’s not as tall. The male is around 5 kilograms easy as it looks. Some bark is and the female is around 3.5. sweet and some is sour and someKilograms. even tasted like garbage to them! So they have to choose wisely. Besides bark, some of the most important foods are leaves shoots, fruits and seeds. their protein is: spider’s crabs and insects. Some of the other meats they eat are grubs, eggs, baby birds sometimes rodents and hares. The vervets rarely drink water!
RUN RUN RUN! Vervets rarely go more than 500 yards away from trees because they are really slow runners. So when the predators find them they can run up the tree out of sight in the leaves. Their predators are: leopards, caracals, sevrilals, baboons, large eagles, crocodiles, lions and pythons. They have different calls to warn off predators. For instance, a long distant call is to warn others of a leopard. Babies learn calls quickly.
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MY HOME The vervet can live in a lot of different habitats. Towards the south they live in South Africa and towards the east they live in Somalia and Ethiopia. Their favorite habitat is acacia woodland along rivers, streams and lakes. They eat and sleep and spend a lot of the day in the treetops. Vervets can live in mountain areas up to 13,100 ft tall! They have those long claws and teeth for climbing mountains.
I’M A BABY! Vervets mate all year long, but they mostly have babies in November & December.they only have one baby at a time After the baby’s born, the mother licks it clean and eats the after birth. The baby spends a week after it’s born clinging to their mother’s stomach. After three weeks the babies can walk about and find food on its own, and play with all the other monkeys!
PIK PEK…GROOM!
Some females are very protective of their young and won’t let anyone take care of them, while others are happy to share. The adult male isn’t a bit interested in the young, but brothers and sisters will hold and care for them. BIG TROOPS Vervets troops used to number up to 120 vervets per troop! But now, because of a lot of problems, there are only about 30 vervets per troop. Only females move in these tribes, the males go visit each troop to make sure all is going right.
Grooming is the most important thing to do in a monkey’s life. They groom parasites, dirt and lots of bugs! They do it in order of tribe. The boss/leader gets groomed first and the best.
AMAZING LIFE! WHAT’S COOL!
Vervets have a longer life than most monkeys. They live 24 years at the most!
Local people call them tumbili, that’s their Swahili name! But that’s not all! They’re also some of the best jumpers and swimmers! (In the monkey family.) The only bad thing about them is if they live around people, they can be big pests! Steeling food, and raiding farms and restaurants! Bibliography
Wild Life Atlas Farndon, John Pleasantville, New york, montreal 2002 Understanding vervet monky http://www. Vervet.za. org/vervets/vervet home.asp
THE END!
Monday April 19, 2010 Fact file www. Vervet facts Monday April 19 2010
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