With the destruction of most of the forest in the Nhamacoa, the trees around us now teem with hundreds of monkeys.
We have a group of about 30 Samangos who live near our dam. They’re no trouble at all as they keep to the treetops and rarely come to the ground.
The Vervets, however, appear to be the juvenile delinquents of the monkey family and unfortunately cause a lot of damage. They’re very wasteful and last year plundered our mango crop until it was completely destroyed by taking a bite or two out of the fruit and then throwing it down uneaten onto the ground in order to make way for another.
They pillage our vegetable garden by pulling out all the vegetables, not to eat but merely out of curiosity and often make raids on our garden, veranda, and laundry room. Douglas has even found them in our outside kitchen and we have had to waive our own rules by allowing him to aim his catapult at their powder blue bums to warn them off!
Trapped in our small space with nowhere to go, the Vervet population has exploded and as these animals live to about 24 years of age, the prospects for the future are alarming.
Various solutions have been put forward to deal with our Vervet problem.
Idalina Fiosse Gavumende, our local Chefe do Posto, has suggested to the population that she bring in hunters to kill all the monkeys.
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I can think of nothing more appalling. First, the population destroys the animals’ habitat and then a government official wants to shoot and kill them!
Deportation to a game park is obviously the answer but how do we do this without disturbing all the other animals in our little forest? And where do we go for sensible
help? This needs quite a lot of thought.
The poor baboons are now trapped in some panga panga trees, in an area the local people use as a cemetery. Their future is also uncertain. A couple of months ago Idalina was at it again. Did the local population want her to bring in hunters to kill all the baboons?
Val.
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