By Kiley Haberman (University of Vermont)
We were camping at the Island Safari Lodge in Maun, Botswana for a few days to prepare for our next few campsites in NG 41 in Mababe. We had a free day to catch up on sleep, readings and research for our projects. I woke up and headed to the food tent to grab a new bag of cereal for breakfast. I heard a noise over by my tent and looked over to see that a Vervet Monkey had grabbed my bar of soap in a zip-lock bag I must have accidentally left outside my tent. I walked over and of course he sprinted up into the tree with it, nibbling the bag trying to get through the plastic. I looked up at him sternly, explaining to him that it was soap, do not eat soap and yelling at him to give it back. A few minutes later, he finally realized it was not a delicious treat and threw it down to the ground. I ran over to grab it and threw it in my tent only to realize that same monkey had jumped around on the tree branches and made his way over to the kitchen table. By the time I turned around and looked into his eyes, he stared back at me and nervously ran off.
All of a sudden, three more vervets appeared. I stood guard by the food table to protect my unopened bag of cereal, among other things. One of them walked along the branches to a towel and poncho hanging on the tree to dry. It grabbed the towel cautiously, moving it around and poking its head inside the fold. He leaned over, grasping the tree with his feet and wrapping his tail around it. He grabbed onto the towel with both hands and swung down to the ground landing on both feet. He walked over to my tent rain cover lying on the ground and was quite intrigued. He sniffed it and reached out, lifting it a bit, then snuck himself in between the folds. He rolled around inside it until another vervet ran over and jumped on top. The startled monkey ran out immediately and huffed at the other. They went back and forth chasing each other out as more monkeys started to climb down from the trees. They tried to fit more and more of them as they all playfully fought to be inside.
An older male screeched as he was kicked out, angry at the others. A juvenile monkey walked off a bit and noticed a hammock hanging between two trees. He started running over and leaped up, grabbed it with one hand and swung off, drawing attention to the others. Two more ran over to the hammock and jumped right into it, swinging back and forth. Four more ran over and jumped in one by one, bouncing the others out. Part of me thought I should scare them off, but watching their behavior was so interesting I couldn’t seem to do it. I looked over to my tent again and there were more monkeys, now intrigued by the mat connected to the front of my tent. One of them lifted it and scurried underneath. Another two tried to follow behind him, but he screeched and they jumped back.
All of a sudden, one of them had lifted my front tent flap slightly as I realized I didn’t fully zip the front door. I ran over to scare them off and fully zip my tent. They climbed into the tree right above my head and stared at me, bobbing their head forward and back. I started to head back to the table and another cheeky monkey was right by the table, reaching his hand up, ripped open the bag of cereal and ran up into the tree. He looked straight into my eyes with his hands folded, resting on his knee so politely. All of a sudden everyone came back from the common area of the lodge and immediately ran around shouting to shoo off the monkeys away.
We did not receive any visits for some time after that, until our campsite in Khwai, Camp Mogoto. We were sitting around the camp fire around sun down one evening when we heard leaves shuffling in the trees. Vervet monkeys were swinging through the branches and started climbing down the tree trunk toward our food table. We ran over to scare them off and realized there were a few more of them on the ground sneaking over. Nearly each day that we’ve been here the monkeys have snuck around trying to weasel their way into our kitchen.
Sometimes when we’re doing our work during the day, we hear rustling in the Kalahari Star bush over by the food tent. They like to sneak through there and hide so we can’t find them. They’re bold little guys, every time we try and scare them off, it doesn’t take long before they sneak back in for another try. A lot of times they run up into the big Camelthorn Acacia tree above our food table, high enough so we can’t reach them. They stare at us, taunt us, bob their heads back and forth, sometimes even making noises at us. We have to keep on constant look out, always making sure food is away and anything else they might want to play with. They are always keeping us on our toes, but hey, that’s life in the bush!