• Volunteers working hard! Volunteer abroad with Via Volunteers in South Africa during your gap year abroad and have lots of fun while doing good!
  • We love looking after these monkeys! Volunteer abroad with Via Volunteers in South Africa during your gap year abroad and have lots of fun while doing good!
  • Infant vervet monkeys are suckled for about 4 months. When they become adept at feeding themselves solid food, the weaning process begins, although it may not be completed until the vervet is 1 year old.
  • In the primates' hierarchy, dominant individuals get the most grooming.
  • Caring for a baby monkey with mother. Volunteer abroad with Via Volunteers in South Africa during your gap year abroad and have lots of fun while doing good!
  • Preparing healthy food for the monkeys. Volunteer abroad with Via Volunteers in South Africa during your gap year abroad and have lots of fun while doing good!
  • Cheeky littly monkey! Volunteer abroad with Via Volunteers in South Africa during your gap year abroad and have lots of fun while doing good!
  • Infants are of great interest to the other monkeys in the troop; subadult females do everything possible to be allowed to groom or hold a new infant.
  • Vervets scent-mark their territory by running their cheeks or chins on rocks or trees. This releases a strong scent from their facial glands which can be sniffed later by other monkeys.
  • Vervets are incredibly well adapted to their surrounding environments as they can jump and climb well when in the trees and are pretty speedy on the ground, along with being excellent swimmers.
  • Do you love monkeys? Why not volunteer abroad with Via Volunteers in South Africa during your gap year abroad and have lots of fun while doing good!
  • Leaves and young shoots make up the bulk of the Vervet monkey's diet, along with tree bark, flowers and fruits that can also be found in the trees surrounding them.
  • You will meet lots of wonderful new people when you olunteer abroad with Via Volunteers in South Africa during your gap year abroad!
  • Vervets are seasonal breeders, giving birth during times of food abundance after the rainy season.
  • Working hard to keep the monkeys happy!
  • The vervet is classified as a medium-sized to large monkey-males weigh up to 17 pounds (about 7.5 kg). Its tail is usually held up, with the tip curving downward. Its arms and legs are approximately the same length.
  • In the wild, vervets have a very mixed diet, although their favourite food is fruit. They will also eat flowers and leaves, crops from farmsteads, and even insects, eggs and small rodents.
  • Do you love monkeys? Why not volunteer abroad with Via Volunteers in South Africa during your gap year abroad and have lots of fun while doing good!
  • Vervets have an intricate system of alarm calls to warn of invading leopards, snakes, and eagles.
  • Vervet monkeys are accidental gardeners. They eat seeds whole, and they pass undigested through them and into their droppings, which are left in ideal places for germination, increasing the abundance of trees.
  • The different types of vervets vary in colour, but generally the body is a greenish-olive or silvery-gray. The face, ears, hands, feet and tip of the tail are black, but a conspicuous white band on the forehead blends in with the short whiskers.
  • After a birth, the mother licks the infant clean, bites off the umbilical cord and eats the afterbirth. The newborn has black hair and a pink face; it will be 3 or 4 months before it acquires adult coloration.
  • Helping to rehabilitate these monkeys is hard work but lots of fun! Why not volunteer abroad with Via Volunteers in South Africa during your gap year abroad and have lots of fun while doing good!
  • The Vervet monkey is an arboreal monkey which means that it spends most of it's time in the safety of the trees.
  • Why not volunteer abroad with Via Volunteers in South Africa during your gap year abroad and have lots of fun helping to rehabilitate the vervet monkeys!
  • The mainly vegetarian diet is supplemented with insects, grubs, eggs, baby birds and sometimes rodents and hares. Vervets rarely drink water.
  • The basic but comfortable volunteer accomodation.
  • Monkey rehab volunteers helping to build an enclosure.
  • Vervet monkeys are diurnal animals spending the days foraging for food and then rest at night.
  • Healthy meals are prepared daily for the monkeys.
  • Preparing healthy meals for the monkeys. Why not volunteer abroad with Via Volunteers in South Africa during your gap year abroad and have lots of fun while doing good!
  • Cute little monkey needing some love! Why not volunteer abroad with Via Volunteers in South Africa during your gap year abroad and have lots of fun while doing good!
  • Why not volunteer abroad with Via Volunteers in South Africa during your gap year abroad and have lots of fun while doing lots of good!
  • Baby vervets having a sleep.
  • Infant vervet monkeys are suckled for about 4 months. When they become adept at feeding themselves solid food, the weaning process begins, although it may not be completed until the vervet is 1 year old.
  • Do you love monkeys? Why not volunteer abroad with Via Volunteers in South Africa during your gap year abroad and have lots of fun while doing lots of good!
  • Young monkeys are very playful, and their favorite activities are chasing one another and pushing each other down from the branches of trees.
  • Preparing food for the monkeys. Why not volunteer abroad with Via Volunteers in South Africa during your gap year abroad and have lots of fun while doing lots of good!
  • These monkeys eat many different types of fruits, flowers, and seeds. Figs are their favourite fruit.
  • Do you love monkeys? Why not volunteer abroad with Via Volunteers in South Africa during your gap year abroad and have lots of fun while doing lots of good!
  • On the ground Vervet monkeys forage for roots, bulbs, seeds and grasses and are also known to supplement their diet with insects, eggs, rodents, birds and other small animals.
  • Grooming is important in a monkey's life. Vervets (as well as most other primates) spend several hours a day removing parasites, dirt or other material from one another's fur.
  • Vervet Monkey babies quickly develop strong social bonds with other monkeys and are known to begin interacting and playing with them by the time they are a month old.
  • Do you love monkeys? Why not volunteer abroad with Via Volunteers in South Africa during your gap year abroad and have lots of fun while doing lots of good!
  • Do you love monkeys? Why not volunteer abroad with Via Volunteers in South Africa during your gap year abroad and have lots of fun while doing lots of good!
  • The different types of vervets vary in colour, but generally the body is a greenish-olive or silvery-grey. The face, ears, hands, feet and tip of the tail are black, but a conspicuous white band on the forehead blends in with the short whiskers.
  • Young monkeys are very playful, and their favorite activities are chasing one another and pushing each other down from the branches of trees.
  • Vervet monkeys are excellent jumpers and swimmers.
  • Young vervets can be mischievous and purposefully give wrong calls and wait and watch how the adults will respond to such behavior! Female monkeys are known to discipline the young ones for such conduct.
  • The Vervet monkey is an omnivorous animal, meaning that they consume both plant matter and other animals in order to get the nutrition that they need to survive.
  • Having some fun on an off day from helping the monkeys. Why not volunteer abroad with Via Volunteers in South Africa during your gap year abroad and have lots of fun while doing lots of good!
  • Working hard at the monkey rehab! Do you love monkeys? Why not volunteer abroad with Via Volunteers in South Africa during your gap year abroad and have lots of fun while doing lots of good!
  • Fun times in the evenings with the other monkey volunteers. Working hard at the monkey rehab! Why not volunteer abroad with Via Volunteers in South Africa during your gap year abroad and have lots of fun while doing lots of good!
  • As with other monkeys, grooming is an important aspect of vervets. They groom each other by removing lodged dirt and bugs from other vervets' fur.
  • Feeding the monkeys. Why not volunteer abroad with Via Volunteers in South Africa during your gap year abroad and have lots of fun while doing lots of good!
  • Grooming is also a way of bonding between individuals and reinforcing the pecking order within the troop.
  • Younger females in the troop that are not yet mature, often show a keen interest in the offspring of adult females and assist them with grooming and caring for their young. They are also known to love to hold them.
  • Female vervets form close social bonds with other females from an early age. As they attain maturity, they even look after and care for a newborn provided the mother readily agrees to leave it in their care.
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