Editing Vervet monkey (section)

== Ecology ==

=== Diet ===
The vervet monkey eats a primarily herbivorous diet, living mostly on wild fruits, flowers, leaves, seeds, and seed pods. In agricultural areas, vervets become problem animals, as they raid bean, pea, young tobacco, vegetable, fruit, and grain crops. Animal foods of their diet include [[grasshopper]]s and [[termite]]s. Raids of [[cattle egrets]] and [[weaver bird]] nests have been observed where the vervets eat the eggs and chicks.<ref name="Skinner1990"/>

A list of some natural food plants and part of the plant eaten, in South Africa:<ref name="Skinner1990"/><ref>Pooley, E. (1993). The Complete Field Guide to Trees of Natal, Zululand and Transkei. {{ISBN|0-620-17697-0}}.
</ref>
{{div col|colwidth=30em}}
* ''[[Acacia erioloba]]'' – seeds and pods
* ''[[Aloe]]''spp. – nectar (flowers)
* ''[[Celtis africana]]'' – fruit
* ''[[Colophospermum mopane]]'' – seeds
* ''[[Deinbollia oblongifolia]]'' – fruit
* ''[[Euphorbia ingens]]'' – fruit
* ''[[Euphorbia tirucalli]]'' – fruit
* ''[[Ficus abutilifolia]]'' – figs
* ''[[Ficus sur]]'' – figs
* ''[[Ficus sycomorus]]'' – figs
* ''[[Grewia afra]]'' – fruit
* ''[[Harpephyllum afrum]]'' – fruit
* ''[[Hyphaene coriacea]]'' – fruit
* ''[[Phoenix reclinata]]'' – fruit
* ''[[Protorhus longifolia]]'' – fruit
* ''[[Rhus chirindensis]]'' – fruit
* ''[[Sclerocarya birrea]]'' – fruit
* ''[[Strelitzia nicolai]]'' – soft parts of the flowers
* ''[[Ximenia afra]]'' – fruit
* ''[[Ziziphus mucronata]]'' – fruit
{{div col end}}

=== Relationship with humans ===

[[Image:Chlorocebus pygerythrus00.jpg|thumb|upright|An infant vervet monkey, South Africa]]
The monkeys are used for biomedical research.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article4276460.ece | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080713013738/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article4276460.ece | url-status=dead | archive-date=13 July 2008 | work=The Times | location=London | title=Germ warfare fear over African monkeys taken to Iran | first=D. | last=Foggo | date=6 July 2008 | access-date=27 March 2010}}</ref> Many people living in close proximity to vervet colonies see them as pests, as they steal their food. Heavy fines in some areas discourage the killing of vervet monkeys.<ref>{{cite news|author=Mngoma, N. |url=http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/r10-000-reward-for-monkey-killer-1.1753789#.VXt2t_mqrUc |title=R10 000 reward for monkey killer |publisher=IOL |date=19 September 2014 |access-date=24 May 2017}}</ref>

Its status according to the [[IUCN]] is "least concern".<ref name=iucn/>

This species was known in ancient [[Egypt]], including the [[Red Sea Mountains]] and the [[Nile Valley]].<ref>{{cite journal |author=Moeyersons, J.|author2= Vermeersch, P. M.|author3= Beeckman, H. |author4= Van Peer, P. |title=Holocene environmental changes in the Gebel Umm Hammad, Eastern Desert, Egypt: Dry cave deposits and their palaeoenvironmental significance during the last 115 ka, Sodmein Cave, Red Sea Mountains, Egypt |journal=Geomorphology |volume=26 |issue=4 |year=1999 |pages=297–312 |doi=10.1016/S0169-555X(98)00067-1|doi-access= }}</ref> From [[fresco]] artworks found in [[Akrotiri (prehistoric city)|Akrotiri]] on the Mediterranean island of [[Santorini]] there is evidence that the vervet monkey was known to the inhabitants of this settlement around 2000 [[Before Christ|BC]]; this fact is most noted for evidence of early contact between Egypt and Akrotiri.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://themodernantiquarian.com/site/10846/akrotiri.html#fieldnotes |author=Michael Hogan, C. |date=2007-12-13 |title=Akrotiri |publisher=Modern Antiquarian |access-date=2008-07-13}}</ref> Excavations dated to the end of the 1st century AD from [[Berenice Troglodytica|Berenike]], a Roman-Egyptian port-town on the Red Sea coast, demonstrate that vervet monkeys must have been kept as pets at that time.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Osypińska |first=Marta|date= December 2016|title=Pet cats at the Early Roman Red Sea port of Berenike, Egypt |journal= Antiquity|volume=90|issue= 354|doi=10.15184/aqy.2016.181 |doi-access=free}}</ref>