Wild vervet monkeys in St. Maarten.
PHILIPSBURG--After having recently received a grant from the Resources for Community Resilience R4CR funding scheme, St. Maarten Nature Foundation announced last week that it was beginning its research project into the island’s invasive vervet monkeys.
The project will focus on developing a sustainable management plan to reduce and manage the population of the island’s vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus pygerythrus). The research will assess the population numbers, the best ways to capture and manage the population, and what methods can be applied in the long term.
The six-month-long project will be coordinated by Alice Manley, a recent graduate in Animal Behaviour from Anglia Ruskin University in England.
“The choice was made to concentrate on developing a solid long-term management plan, as the short-term solution of culling will lead to similar monkey population levels in a few years,” said the Nature Foundation.
This species of monkey was introduced to the island some time ago and has no local natural predators. “This leads to high reproduction and survival rates, and population levels only being controlled by food availability in an area,” said the foundation.
Vervet monkeys have long been a nuisance to the island’s farmers and home growers.
“We understand the frustration of gardeners and home growers. Nevertheless, the research collected during this portion of the monkey management project is essential to tackle the problem of this invasive species,” said the Nature Foundation.
“To ensure that this issue has a long-term and reliable solution, a data-driven study is necessary to help the future generations. A quick fix without any data may help the issue for a short time, but the species will eventually repopulate and become a nuisance again. St. Maarten has a unique environment and ecosystem, so it requires a solution that is specialised for our island,” said Manley.
For more information about the project, persons are asked to send an e-mail to
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https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/nature-foundation-begins-monkey-research-project-with-r4cr-funds
