Monkey business!

Probably against our better judgement, we have been feeding the monkeys and watching their heirarchy in action!

The younger ones have far less fear of approaching the house, but as soon as they run away with pieces of banana (one in the mouth and one in a paw), they are chased mercilessly by older females.

Once the skins had been abandoned, the baby monkeys then came back and salvaged the skins, picking them clean.

We then hung half a banana on a string to see what happened...

She jumped up and grabbed some of the banana. This photo shows a piece of banana falling and I have some great video of one of them approaching, taking and running away. As I can't put the video on this site we thought we would send it to 'Funniest Animals on the Planet'!

The alpha male watched from a distance and we were convinced he orchestrated it, up to a point. However, suddenly they all disappeared back through the fence, and we heard the most awful squabbling taking place, even though there was still a banana hanging on the patio.

These cheeky monkeys were running over the thatch at Lilayi lodge, presumably doing untold damage. Oliver and Brigitte have a thatched roof on their home in Cape Town and commented that they are glad they don't live in an area with monkeys.

But vervet monkeys are prolific in urban areas in South Africa. These were on the roof of St Mary's School in Kloof, near Durban, with the following notice on the door.

I have to give credit for these two photos to my friend Roz (on the left), from Australia, whom I met at the CDFSA conference, recently - thanks Roz!.