| Tue 23 February 2010 13:53:00 - Diary by Elainne Bratt Wednesday, 17 February 2010 This was the final day I was to observe the group in their enclosure before they were once again released and given free access to come and go as they pleased. That morning I accompanied Louise and Andre to the enclosure. A young ones had been badly injured previously and his stitches had to be removed. ‘Ernie’, as he was named, was caught and taken to have the stitches removed. Ernie had teamed up with Noodles’ whose mother was pregnant when she arrived at the centre; she had undergone massive amounts of stress and eventually Noodles was born by C-section and raised at the centre by people. His mother has since given natural birth to another baby which she is successfully rearing herself in the group. By now the group was becoming used to having me around and I could walk around without disturbing them very much at all. Once again I observed that the group generally moved as one unit and that there were plenty of interactions within the group such as grooming, playing, mating and the occasional display of dominance when a lower-ranking member forgot their place. I also became aware of the fact that the dominant male spent a lot of the time alone at the top of one of the enclosure’s two tallest trees, presumably on ‘look out’ sentry duty. |
| Tue 23 February 2010 13:50:36 - Diary by Elainne Bratt Thursday, 18 February 2010 Today the enclosure's gate was opened and their food was placed outside, yet quite close to the gate. They were hungry and went to the food straight away; some members of the group seemed perfectly happy to sit outside the enclosure and eat the food where it had been placed, but there were a few more wary ones who would grab food and take it back into the safety of the enclosure to eat, although they didn’t go far into the enclosure. Interestingly, the group didn’t spend a lot of time eating the food they’d been given but instead went very quickly to begin foraging in the surrounding bush. With respect to Sanwild’s long term goal of having the group living naturally in the reserve and independent of human support, this observation is very significant. The fact that the group seems to be effective at foraging and enjoys foraging for its food is very positive and goes a long way to achieving this goal. Once the gate was open, the group continued to interact socially through grooming, playing, mating etc. I also had a meeting with Louise today; she gave me a lot of information regarding the histories of the monkeys in the group. She also told me about Sanwild itself, what they do on a daily basis as well as some of their success stories. Sanwild does wonderful work, it is very selfless and I’m proud to be associated with them through the vervet project. |
| Tue 23 February 2010 13:48:13 - Diary by Elainne Bratt Friday, 19 February 2010 The enclosure was left open overnight and the group had free access. Today when I arrived at the cage the vervets all seemed to be grouped around the cage’s entrance and within close proximity of the entrance. The entire group appeared to be foraging. Andre brought their breakfast at about 10h30; initially the group all went and started eating the fruit, but as on the day before, they quickly moved off into the bush and continued to forage for themselves. I was by now fully accepted by the group who, for the most part, totally ignored my presence, except when one or two of the cheekier ones would try and steal my hat or pen or use me as a stepping stool to reach a spider that would otherwise be out of their reach. The group continued to forage for the rest of the morning; they moved around the outside of the enclosure. A small group consisting of the two adult females and their babies, as well as two or three younger ones, stayed in the enclosure most of the time, although they stayed close to the rest of the foraging group who were mainly in the outside area surrounding the enclosure. |
| Tue 23 February 2010 13:46:48 - Diary by Elainne Bratt Saturday, 20 February, 2010 My last day; I felt really sad to be leaving the monkeys I’d grown attached to, even in the 5 short days I’d been observing them. Today the group wasn’t given any food and when I arrived they already seemed to have taken matters into their own hands and were foraging in the outside areas surrounding the cage. After an hour or so of foraging they moved back into the cage and all seemed to have the same idea to just relax. It was one of the few times I’d seen the group so still since I’d been there. After their mid- morning rest they decided that they would eat the Marula fruit which had been given to them by Andre a few days earlier. Marula fruit doesn’t seem to be their favourite food but they’ll have to get used to it if they’re going to survive and thrive in the reserve without help from humans. Later they once again ventured out into the bush surrounding the enclosure to forage and by the time I left they had gone quite far. I can’t wait to go back, hopefully at the end of March; I miss the group already. From the few days I’ve spent observing them; they seem to be a very healthy, cohesive natural group. |
| Wed 17 February 2010 13:19:56 - Diary by Louise Welcome Elaine Bratt We would like to welcome Elaine Bratt to SanWild. She is currently studying towards her BSc Honours degree in Zoology through WITS University. Elainne will be monitoring the release of our troop of vervet monkeys and I will do my best to get her to write a daily diary which I think you may find very interesting. |
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