The Colobus Trust is concerned about the status of not only the Angolan Colobus Monkeys but that of all primates in the Diani Coastal region. One of its missions is to deliver high quality rescue and rehabilitation to any primates to enable them successfully survive in the wild – where they belong.

In line with this, the Colobus Trust released two rehabilitated male vervet monkeys. One, a former pet, was released into the Longo-Magandi Forest, and the other, which had been injured, into Makadara Forest, both within Shimba Hills.  The first had been a pet for four years and had never lived in the wild. It was used to human contact, human food and was not well versed in monkey ‘protocol’. However, the Trust with its intensive rehabilitation programme helped it adopt wild monkey habits. At the end of this period, the reverse was true and it was ready for release into the wild.

This programme involved lessening human contact to the bare minimum, getting it on a wild food diet and exposing it to other primates of various species.

The vervet was monitored for three consecutive days during which it was observed to move about the forest, albeit within a small radius. It was verified that sufficient wild food varieties utilized by vervets were available. These include Pachystela brevipes, Celtis phillippensis, Polysphearia multiflora, Tabernamontana stapfiana and Drypetes natalensis. A follow-up confirmed that it had adjusted to and accepted its new environment.

The second vervet did not require such intensive monitoring as it was wild and will certainly have no difficulty in adjusting to its new environment.