Kenya Beasts - Primates

The Baboon, Papio cyanocephalus, is a large terrestrial monkey with a somewhat dog-like head. There are 2 subspecies found in Kenya; the Yellow Baboon found in Eastern Kenya and the Olive Baboon found throughout the rest of the country. The 2 species can be told apart by build, the Yellow Baboon is slimmer and longer limbed, and by the presence of a mane (present in the Olive Baboon but absent in the Yellow).

Baboons live, and travel, in troops, gathering together at night to sleep in trees or among rocks. They are omnivorous eating fruit, roots, tubers and grass as well as meat. The meat portion of their diet may be in the form of insects and other invertebrates but it also includes hares, young gazelles, lizards and birds. They are fearless monkeys and have been known to attack people when disturbed or if they feel threatened .... and once you've seen their teeth at close quarters you really don't want to get them mad with you.

For more on Kenya's Baboons see Moving the Pumphouse Gang.

Monkeys

The Black and White Colobus Colobus guereza also known as the Guereza is a very distinctive and beautiful monkey with its jet black coat and flowing white mantle. They live mostly high in the forest canopy and are difficult to get a close look at. We have mostly seen them only in fleeting glimpses as they moved through the tops of trees. However Mountain Lodge on Mount Kenya can be a good spot to get a closer look as the local troop occasionally comes through the lodge grounds at sunset, on route to their sleeping areas. The roof top look out area is excellent for a tree-top view of the troop. They are, however, shy and wary of humans.

The Vervet, Cercopithecus aethiops, will be familiar to anyone who has visited one of Kenya's National Parks or Reserves. They are fearless, cheeky, intelligent ..... and considered a pest by hotel owners. They are adept at forming raiding parties near restaurants and we have spent many a breakfast playing 'protect the sugar-bowl' while a troop of Vervet made a dash through grabbing bananas, mangoes, sugar cubes .... and just about anything they can lay their hands on. They climb well, are agile and very quick. Many lodges have taken to employing local marksmen armed with sling-shots whose job it is to scare off any Vervet that comes close to the diners. Of course the monkeys can't be blamed for their behaviour, countless tourists have encouraged them to come close by offering sweets or fruit. But be warned, the Vervet's preferred way of handling this situation is to bite the hand that feeds them .... so they nip in, bite the finger holding the treat and then grab it when the unsuspecting person drops it.

Sykes Monkey, Cercopithecus albogularis mitis, is also known as the White-throated Guenon. These are forest monkeys which live and travel in family groups with up to a dozen or more members. They feed in the morning and late afternoon in the forest canopy but they descend to lower levels during the hottest parts of the day. They mostly feed on leaves, fruit, shoots, flowers, bark, fungi, lichen, grass etc but they also eat insects, eggs and young birds. We have first-hand experience of both their taste for fruit and their ingenuity in getting it. In January 2000 we were staying at Mountain Lodge on the slopes of Mt Kenya. Mindful of the monkeys we closed all the windows in our room and went out for a walk. When we returned there was chaos in the room, a troop of Sykes Monkeys had spotted a bowl of fruit in our room and had discovered a faulty slat in the louvre window. The combination of the two things was too much for the monkeys and they orchestrated a raid on the room ..... there were bits of chewed fruit everywhere! As we were cleaning up, 2 monkeys came back to the room to see if there was anything left to steal, so keeping very quiet we watched as they carefully inserted their fingers into the faulty bit of window and worked the louvre open again .... at least it proved to the hotel staff that it wasn't just us being careless!