Some more monkey business

Late one afternoon, I drove very slowly through the Langata forest, looking very carefully to find Suni antelope, and was soon rewarded as a tiny antelope was visible in the undergrowth.

As I was about to drive away, a large family of more than 20 Sykes' monkeys appeared walking in the road and feeding from the fruits in the trees. They were very relaxed and not frightened by my appearance.

They are also often seen in the surrounding suburbs around Nairobi district, especially where there are large trees. They are wonderful to watch at times. However, they can be a bit of a nuisance when they enter homes to grab food like fruit.

In the past, wildlife roamed freely in Nairobi as there was very little human development. However, in the last 50 years, the city has grown dramatically, and most species now reside inside the Nairobi National Park (gazetted 1946).

However, due to the fact that Nairobi district has so many large trees, many monkey species have continued to move over this area. Monkeys are still very much part of Nairobi, and even if they are a nuisance at times, they still delight many people with their “monkey business”.

Sykes' monkey (Cercopithecus albogularis), named after English naturalist Colonel William Henry Sykes (1790-1872), is also known as the white-throated monkey or Samango monkey.

It is found between Ethiopia and South Africa, including south and east Democratic Republic of Congo. It has been considered conspecific with the blue monkey.

There are 12 subspecies of Sykes' monkey. In the Nairobi area, Cercopithecus albogularis kolbi (Mount Kenya Sykes' monkey) is found.

So next time you are in the park and you see monkeys, stop for a while and watch them as they go about their interesting “monkey business”. Some of their behaviour is at times almost humanlike, and that is perhaps very amusing to many people.

For information link to the following website www.kws.go.ke