The Green Monkey or “Chlorocebus sabaeus” goes by many names; including sabaeus monkey, vervet monkey and callithrix monkey. They belong to the Old World monkey family. Old World monkeys are distinguishable from New World monkeys in that they are native to Africa, Asia and Europe. They belong to the clade Catarrhini which literally means “down-nose”, simply because their nostrils point downwards. While New World monkeys are native to the Americas and belong to the Platyrrhini clade which means “flat-nose”, because their nostrils face sideways.
The green monkey is medium sized in comparison with other species, and is sexually dimorphic, males and females vary in size according to sex. In this case the males …show more content…
The Greens were introduced to a tropical environment when they were brought to the Caribbean islands during the time of continuous slave trading in the late 17th century. Traders’ ships continually traveled from West Africa to the tropical islands bringing with them the green monkey which still lives there today. The Greens can be found thriving in the trees, beaches, highly populated urban areas and even the swamps of St.Kitts, Nevis, Saint Martin and, Barbados. They thrive because the only predators they have in the Caribbean are humans, in more agricultural areas they are considered pests, they forage for fruits in fruit farms and are hunted by …show more content…
The lifespan of green monkeys is considered between 11 to 13 years, however, this is considered the upper limit as it is not well studied and those in captivity may live longer. Although green monkeys are not considered endangered their numbers have been steadily declining, this is due to deforestation and destruction of their environments. As well as heavy predation from humans, birds, snakes, and mammals. Their numbers decrease in Africa but increase in the Caribbean because of the lack of predation.
Green monkeys are both fruit eaters and folivorous, depending on food availability. Just like environments, they adapt very well to different food sources, which allows them to thrive easily. Fruits are preferred over leaves and grasses, after heavy rains fruits become plentiful, the most commonly eaten are wild bananas, papayas, and mangos. Green monkeys possess mouth pouches to store and carry food, because of these they are able to gather a lot of food for an extended period without threat of other monkeys or species stealing it. These pouches are present in all members of the Cercopithecoidea. Among fruits, they also eat roots, nectar, seeds, tubers, flowers, sap, grasses, plants and fungus. They have also been observed eating small invertebrates like crabs and mussels, and well as insects, bats, small reptiles and