By Jennifer Cruse | Project Leader
Do you remember when we announced the successful release of 22 vervet monkeys?
Well, October 2023 marked 12 months since the 2022 rescued vervet troop were released back to the wild in Zambia. We are delighted to report that, the troop remains intact, and all released individuals are surviving back in the wild. This is a significant achievement for the Zambia Primate Project (ZPP) team and the monkeys at this important release milestone.
However, the release hasn’t all been smooth sailing, and the last few months have been very tough due to climatic pressures. This year’s dry season has been especially hard on the monkeys as the rains finished early, making the difficult dry season longer. Very little new plant growth occurs during the dry season, meaning the monkeys had to use all their skills to forage and survive this period. As the monkeys are monitored post-release for one year, the ZPP team was able to keep a very close eye on all the individuals. With still a month to go before the anticipated onset of the next rains, the field monitoring team noted a loss of body condition across the whole troop, with some individuals causing concern. Since this is the first dry season that these primates have experienced in the wild and as it was a particularly severe dry season following assessment, it was decided to provide supplementary food to ensure they were given ample opportunity to regain lost condition while developing their foraging skills in the wild. Supplementary feeding continued until the rains began and wild food availability increased. It is worth noting that only a basic supply of food is made available during supplementary feeding, enough to sustain an individual but, importantly, not tasty enough to prevent the troop from continuing to forage for appetising treats such as fruits, seeds, and insects. We are very careful not to promote reliance on supplementary feeding but to support survival in these difficult situations.
As always, we thank you for supporting us and helping to ensure this vital work is carried out.
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By Natalie Blachford | Project Leader
By Natalie Blachford | Project Leader
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