Vervet monkey (Chlorocebus pygerythrus): size, diet, behaviour and habitat

The vervet monkey, Chlorocebus pygerythrus, is a medium-sized, semi-terrestrial monkey¹ endemic to eastern and southern Africa², where it lives in savanna, open woodland and forest-grassland mosaic. It lives in groups of two or more females, their offspring and multiple males, and has 6–7 distinctive alarm calls³ that identify the nature and proximity of a predator. The IUCN lists it as Least Concern, under Red List version 2022.2⁴.

What does a vervet monkey look like?

A vervet’s back and sides are mottled light brown, grayish-brown, tawny, olive-brown, olive-green or brownish-yellow, with a white or off-white belly and inner limbs and grayish-brown outer limbs. The face is black, ringed in white by cheek whiskers and brow fur, with black ears and black eyes set in pinkish lids. The long tail is darker above and tipped with black¹, and the hands and feet are black, more so in adult males.

Males weigh 3.9–8.0 kg and females 3.4–5.3 kg, and males are about 30% larger. The San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance gives a head-body length of 490 mm for males and 446 mm for females, with a tail of 600–750 mm in males and 485–653 mm in females. Coat colour is similar in both sexes; the ano-genital region tells them apart. Males have a turquoise-blue scrotum surrounded by white hairs, red hair at the base of the tail and a white perineal stripe, while females have a pink perineum and a blue vulvar area. Infants are dark brownish-gray at birth¹ and acquire the adult colour by six months.

Other Chlorocebus species that share parts of its range typically lack the black hands, feet and tail tip¹ of C. pygerythrus; the section on similar species below gives the details.

Where do vervet monkeys live?

Vervet monkeys occur in Botswana, Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda², Somalia, South Africa, Eswatini, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. One subspecies, C. p. excubitor, is a dwarf form living on islands in the Indian Ocean and Lake Victoria⁵.

Their habitat is savanna, open woodland and forest-grassland mosaic, and they are common near water: rivers, swamps, lakeshores and the Indian Ocean coast. They are associated with several acacia species and live from sea level to above 2,000 m². The species is extremely adaptable and lives in rural and urban areas.

What do vervet monkeys eat?

Vervets are opportunistic omnivores that eat abundant and available foods. They feed mainly on plants: seasonal foods are leaves, stems, floral buds and flowers, fruit, seeds and mushrooms, and gum is eaten year round. They rely heavily on acacias, and in some areas the fever tree, Acacia xanthophloea, provides 17–57% of the diet. Animal food includes beetles, termites, ants, moths and butterflies, grasshoppers, spiders, snails and mantids, plus bird eggs and small chicks⁶; they do not scavenge carrion.

They search for food in trees and on the ground, moving slowly with no apparent leader, and turn over sticks, small logs and dried dung or scratch the ground. They slap and leap at winged insects such as flying termites, catching them between clapped hands. Food is commonly plucked by hand⁶, and gum is scraped off trees with the mouth.

How do vervet monkeys live?

Groups range from 7 to 53 individuals and are typically under 40, with a sex ratio of about 1:1. Females most often remain in their natal groups, while males disperse, most of them joining another nearby group at once. Each sex has a linear dominance hierarchy³, and a female’s position is largely stable, with mothers and daughters holding similar ranks.

Groups defend territories of 5–103 ha, which can overlap considerably; they do not patrol them, but all group members except infants take part in defence. Vervets are diurnal and sleep in trees at night, preferring tall, large trees. They walk slowly with a symmetric gait while foraging and run with an asymmetric gait³, often to cross open, short-grass areas; they climb trees head first and come down head or tail first.

They make more than 30 distinct sounds. Their alarm calls range from high-intensity calls for a major predator close by to a low-intensity call for a minor mammalian predator, and variable “chutter” calls appear to identify specific predators such as snakes and humans. Dominant males perform the Red, White, and Blue display³, pacing back and forth in front of a subordinate with the tail held erect to expose the brightly coloured anus and scrotum; the display peaks in the mating season.

How do vervet monkeys reproduce and how long do they live?

Vervets breed seasonally, with timing that varies by place and is linked to patterns in rainfall and food availability; more than 85% of births fall in October–December at Amboseli National Park and in November–December at Samburu National Reserve. Gestation lasts about 163–165 days in managed care; the wild figure, 156–161 days, is an estimate for a single female. The interbirth interval is 13–14 months. Newborns weigh 300–400 g, have their eyes open at birth and are carried on the mother’s belly, rarely riding on her back. Weaning comes at about 3 months and is complete by about 18 months. From 3 to 6 months infants are carried rarely, only in emergencies, and join in juvenile play; about 41% of infants do not survive their first year⁷, and predation is the most frequent known cause of death.

Females first reproduce at 4–6 years of age, at a mean age of 5 years in one study, and males reach sexual maturity at 5–6 years. The San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance has no AZA lifespan estimate⁷ for vervets in managed care; the African Wildlife Foundation gives a life span of up to 30 years⁸, without separating wild and captive animals.

Is the vervet monkey endangered?

The IUCN lists the vervet monkey as Least Concern, under Red List version 2022.2⁴. The San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance factsheet, last updated in January 2026, describes it as common and abundant in many areas, but patchily distributed and prone to local extinction, and gives its CITES status as Appendix II, citing UNEP 2018. At Amboseli, park fences confined elephants, the extra elephant traffic damaged trees, and the loss of sleeping and foraging habitat preceded vervet population declines. The same factsheet lists no major threats, but notes persecution by humans⁹: the species is classed as vermin in parts of its range, farmers kill vervets that raid crops, and it is eaten as bushmeat in some areas. The African Wildlife Foundation adds that vervets have been considered a valuable research animal, making live trapping prevalent⁸.

Similar species

• Grivet (Chlorocebus aethiops): overlaps with the vervet in regions of Ethiopia¹; males often have a white moustache and pale hands, where the vervet’s hands are black. The two are known to hybridise in the wild⁵.
• Tantalus monkey (Chlorocebus tantalus): overlaps in regions of Uganda¹ and lacks the black hands, feet and tail tip of the vervet; it too forms natural hybrids⁵ with the vervet.
• Bale Mountains grivet (Chlorocebus djamdjamensis): named in the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance classification⁵ and found in regions of Ethiopia¹; males have a white moustache and a face without the vervet’s white ring.
• Patas monkey (Erythrocebus patas): a close relative based on cranial morphology⁵, ranging from the western tip of Senegal to East Africa. It has a shaggy, reddish coat, white underparts, legs and feet, and a white moustache, and weighs 7–13 kg¹⁰.