Thieves in the Camp

Monkeys are probably the most adaptable of animals, they actually welcome us visitors to their country as they find many ways of expoiting and benefiting from us. While taking other peoples things without asking is actually a crime, for monkeys it's more an opportunity. It's not always an easy task to protect your belongings especially if it's edible!

We camped for two nights at a site just next to lake bogoria, a lovely campsite with a resident troupe of vervet monkeys and a plague of mosquitos. The monkeys hang around the camp full time in the hope of getting left overs and anything else they can get their hands on. They go to the bins each morning and evening to see what has been thrown away. They inspect everything and will eat almost anything they can digest. In the photo above they are tucking into the remains of our spagetti bolognaise and thoroughly enjoying it.

We arrived at the campsite late afternoon and settled in while Charles, our chef, cooked dinner. He managed to cook a three course meal on a one ring camping gas stove, which was pretty impressive in itself, not only that but the food was lovely. Tomorrow we were heading off for a full day at the lake, so after breakfast Charles made up a packed lunch and put the rest of the food in his tent, securing the zips with a padlock to keep it safe and out of the hands of the monkeys, or so he thought. We hadn't realised how determined and persistent they could be. Because they couldn't get in via the zip they picked at different parts of the tent until a small hole appeared, then they continued to pick at this until the hole got bigger and bigger until finally it was large enough for them to squeeze into and steal the food stored within.

We returned late afternoon to find a selection of partly eaten vegetables scattered around the tents. One of the monkeys was actually sitting on the branch of a tree just above the tent, crunching away on a carrot, watching us as we inspected the damage. They had taken most of our food for that evening; fortunately we had just enough to get by until we could stock up again the next day. There was a German family also staying at the campsite who were present when this took place. When they realised what was happening they had tried to chase the monkeys away but to no avail, there were just too many of them and they were very well organised.

This is just one of the hazards of camping, sometimes no matter how careful you try to be, the wildlife are usually one step ahead, they have learned how to take advantage of every opportunity that presents itself.