The Vervet Monkey must be one of the most lovely of the ape species with their small cute face framed by the white fur, they are also quite intelligent. They welcome tourists as a source of easy food. I'm not talking about tourists feeding them, which is obviously not a good idea, more that they steal from you whenever they get the chance.
The vervet monkey in the picture is one of many that hang around a designated picnic area next to the mara river because they know that at certain times of the day there will be lots of food around. The guides bring you here so that you can take a stroll along the riverbank, with an armed guard, where you can see families of hippo's and the many crocodiles that spend their days lazing about, before having lunch. The wooded picnic area is littered with fallen trees that make good seats and the guides always carry blankets for these occasions. Every lunchtime the monkey's choose a group of people and take up their positions in the trees just above them. As soon as the opportunity presents itself they sneak down, steal what they can before heading back up the tree to safety. They are particularly fond of bananas.
They sometimes work together in pairs, we had a troope of vervet monkey's living on the edge of our campsite. One morning myself and my husband were enjoying a very tasty breakfast of sausage, omelette and small cubes of potato when a delightful monkey came and sat at the end of our table, just watching us. My husband quickly grabbed for his camera, which he always keeps to hand, as he turned and focused for the shot another monkey came in from the opposite direction, hopped up onto the table grabbed handfuls of his breakfast and made off into the bush before he realised he had been robbed. As soon as the the first monkey had got the food the second one ran off after him to share in the spoils. It was a brilliant strategy and clearly one that works!
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