My vreugdes en frustrasies

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WPC Cheeky: Come have my breakfast

Cheeky vervet monkey sitting on the balcony wall having an orange

Vervet monkey

“Yes, just walk in and come have my breakfast, all of it. Don’t mind me, I can have yesterday’s stale bread. Cheeky little monkey.”

In South Africa, Vervet monkeys are protected in terms of both national and provincial conservation legislation

These monkeys are as cute as a button, but they are also quite mischievous and living alongside them in a residential area can be a challenge. They have a highly developed sense of entitlement regarding any food in the house or growing in the garden, and will go to any lengths to get access thereto.

Our Monkey Helpline does a magnificent job of educating the residents on the issue of dealing with “unwanted” Vervet presence. We always try to keep in mind the simple rules of not feeding the monkeys, keeping fruit and other edibles locked in the fridge or cupboards, not leaving open doors or windows when the house is unattended, etc.

But (there is always a but), what do you do when you are having breakfast on the balcony or leaving the sliding doors open for a breath of cool air, and in walks a monkey to calmly lay claim to “his” share of the breakfast?

This little fellow very quickly adapted to our lifestyle and no amount of shoo-ing deterred him from his mission to join us for breakfast. Vervets usually fear men more than women, but this little guy was obviously a gender equality supporter and ignored the man of the house as easily as he did the women.

We tried squirting him with the hosepipe or a water bottle (and argued about mopping the tiles afterward!). Not a good solution.

The Monkey Helpline advised us to point a gun-like object at the monkey to try and scare him away, but the only qualifying object that we could think of was a camera … and see how that turned out!

In the end, we gave up our dream of a leisurely seaside breakfast and just gobbled our toast standing up at the kitchen counter, trying to ignore the reproachful eyes watching us through the closed glass doors. Eventually, our breakfast companion decided to move on and left us in peace.

WPC Cheeky

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32 Comments

  1. I fully understand that this behaviour should be not encouraged, but…..it’s soooooo cute 🤔🤗

  2. Hester, jy weet ek hou van geen aap nie. Nie eens hierdie sweetie pie nie. Hulle is gebore kwaaddoeners.☺

    • Comment by post author

      Hester Ley Nel

      Hulle leer beslis maklik slegte gedrag aan, maar ons vind ook dat die mense hier (meesal vakansiegangers wat nie van beter weet nie) hulle voer. Hulle word gou gewoond daaraan om kos te bedel of te steel en het nie meer die motivering om in die veld daarvoor te gaan soek nie.

  3. Oulike stouters

  4. Great choice for cheeky!

  5. Blog Andrew

    Your monkey tales never fail to amaze me, you won’t understand why because I’ve only ever seen monkeees in a zoo that they sit on a wall in the garden is fabulous!!!

    • Comment by post author

      Hester Ley Nel

      I can fully understand what you mean. I lived my whole adult life in big cities all over the country and I only saw cars, buildings and people during the course of my day. We also have a few zoos but I hate seeing the animals in cages. The few small nature reserves I visited on a regular basis; those you can find in and around every city. There are only a few areas left in South Africa where the wild buck, monkeys, etc. still live in and around the suburbs and I am lucky to live here in one of those areas.

      • Blog Andrew

        Hester I to hate zoos, many years ago I visited London Zoo in Regent’s Park and still to this day I can picture a magnificent gorilla sitting in a metal cage. I might add I do envy you having monkey’s in the garden 😀

  6. Blog Andrew

    So funny, I always look at your monkey photos and my mind can’t process they’re wild animals.

  7. Hulle is my man se nagmerrie!!! Wanneer ons in julle wêreld kuier weet ek nie wat is die ergste nie…. die ape wat so op die dak lawaai…. of die paddas wat so kwaak dat ‘n mens nie kan slaap nie…. of die nou en dan se slang wat voel hy moet ook gesig wys. Ek glimlag vir julle vinnige toast etery…. die lewe wil maar net nie uitwerk soos ons beopan nie nê.

    • Beplan 😊

    • Comment by post author

      Hester Ley Nel

      My man en dogter kan net so kla oor die ape, die paddakoor, die vlêrmuise in die bome en die grassnyers oorkant die pad – al die geluide maak hulle mal. Ek lag net; daar is sekere voordele daaraan om effens doof te wees.

      • Ek het al lekker gesmile. Ons seun maak niks dood nie…. nie eers ‘n slang nie. Die gastekamer is aan die een kant van die huis (juis daar waar die paddas so baljaar.) Wanneer die huis stil is sluip my man uit…. vat ons kleindogter se plastiese graaf, en laat met mening paddas deur die lug trek tot anderkant die muur.

  8. Aapstreke! Daar is darem lekker stories saam met die stoute ape. Die ou laat nogal toe dat jy hom afneem.

    • Comment by post author

      Hester Ley Nel

      Hy was mak. Hulle raak regtig hans as jy hulle net ‘n kans gee, maar ons probeer hard om hulle nie te laat voel dat hulle deel van ons trop (gesin) is nie.

      • Hul kan mens tog ook lekker ore aansit. Kyk nou maar die ou wat sommer saam met julle sal eet as hy kans kry. Lyk of jou blog nou redelik wil werk. Kon vanoggend nie inkom nie. Nou het ek gewoon ingekom soos altyd.

        • Comment by post author

          Hester Ley Nel

          Ons internet was gister so stadig soos ‘n slak. Boonop het Windows besluit om my dag misrabel te maak met hulle alewige downloads en updates.

        • Dis nie lekker as daar so n onderbreking is of n stadige oopmaak. Ek kry ook gereeld Off line tye dan kry ek sommer die piep.

        • Comment by post author

          Hester Ley Nel

          Hier het hulle ‘n manier om ons internet gedurende vakansietye te “throttle”, sodat hulle meer bandwidth beskikbaar het vir vakansiegangers se selfone en laptops.

  9. Stout klein helsimpies. Hier by ons is die bobbejane ‘n groot probleem, gelukkig nie in die area waar ons bly nie.

  10. I don’t know if they’re the same monkeys but the Wilderness in the Garden Route also had a lot of monkeys and where we stayed, they got so clever that the sliding doors had double locks and on top. The windows had bars that would not allow them to come in. We were told they once got in to the main house and made a whole lot of mess. I think San Lameer also has many of them. Hubby’s wallet disappeared from the golf cart. He shouldn’t have left a packet of chips near it. 🙂

    • Comment by post author

      Hester Ley Nel

      OMW, the wallet! Normally they don’t touch anything that is not edible.

      • It must have been by mistake or they were too naughty. It was with an open packet of crisps. Haha!

  11. Ja hierdie kn-ape is wydverspreid, ook fotos van hulle in Kruger Wildtuin geneem.

    • Comment by post author

      Hester Ley Nel

      Hulle is oral hier rond. Karen het nou haar “groentetuin” (blare en kruie vir slaai) in bakke gesit en dit staan op die toegeboude sonstoep. Die kn-apies kan net na hulle kyk met sulke verlangende ogies.