Monkeys: to feed or not to feed? Advice from Ballito Rescue

When they look at you with their cute faces, it is often easy to give in to the temptation of feeding them, but this starts a terrible cycle.

Feeding monkeys is a topic that has caused much drama, which Ballito Rescue’s Laura van Rooyen maintains makes the relationship between monkey and man more strained.

“While there are no laws in KZN that prohibit the feeding of monkeys around your home or in public places, there are specific rules which forbid the feeding of monkeys in private housing or eco-estates as well as in formal conservation areas,” said Van Rooyen who works closely with Monkey Helpline.

“Feeding monkeys by hand or from your home is strongly discouraged as it teaches them to take food from people. This increases the chances of monkeys grabbing food from the hands of people who do not wish to share their food with them.

“This can be a frightening and unpleasant experience, especially for small children and monkeys who are used to getting close to humans for food become vulnerable to those people who deliberately want to hurt, kill or capture them.”

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She said one has to remember that a monkey troop is bonded to their territory and therefore will try to survive in their area despite the continuous urban, industrial and agricultural development taking their natural habitat away.

“A troop of monkeys has a matrilineal line spanning many generations. Female Vervets never leave the territory of their birth so the monkeys you see in the troop, besides most mature adult males, descend from female monkeys who lived there hundreds of years ago.”

If you feel you must feed the monkeys Van Rooyen recommends:

• Set up a “feeding station” as far from your house as possible, but not in a place where the concentrated presence of the monkeys becomes your neighbour’s problem. Place the food before you are expecting the monkeys to arrive, but not at the same time every day. This will ensure that they do not associate the food with you and do not come to expect the food to be there at any given time. If they arrive and find no food, they will move on as part of their natural foraging process. Ideally there should be a few “feeding stations” along the foraging routes in those areas where monkeys are considered an ongoing nuisance. This will encourage them to keep moving along the route and reduce their desire to enter adjacent homes for food

• The best food to put out for monkeys is soaked whole mealies, monkey nuts, sunflower seeds, raisins, whole-wheat bread, fresh raw vegetables such as carrot, sweet potato, baby marrow, broccoli, cauliflower, butternut, green beans or peas, pumpkin pips, and fresh fruit like banana, apple, citrus or grapes.

• Put the food on the ground or any natural features such as logs or rocks. Do not place the food in containers, as this will encourage them to forage in similar containers in people’s homes.

• Monkeys naturally forage over a large area and their strict hierarchy in the troops means the higher ranking monkeys get preference for food. Spread out the food at the feeding station to ensure lower ranking monkeys get a chance to eat as well, instead of becoming frustrated and looking for food in adjacent houses where they are not wanted. Use walls, banks and vegetation as “screens” allowing lower ranking monkeys to feed out of the sight of aggressive or higher ranking monkeys.

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