Monkeys on campus: Do’s and don’ts for staff and students

“You will see them more and more in the future.”

This warning comes from Lieb Venter, a zoologist, about the vervet monkeys on the Potchefstroom campus of North-West University (NWU) where the animals appear to be a growing problem as they intimidate humans, in particular to get food.

He explains that when people see the monkeys, they tend to throw down their food and run. The monkey, who acted aggressively, just got a free meal.

What is important, according to Venter, is that students and staff know how to act and react towards the vervet monkeys.

It is against this backdrop that Leslie Barends, the safety, health, and environmental manager at the NWU, has been working hard to ensure that information about the monkeys is shared with the university community. 

In addition to warning signs that were put up at the Potchefstroom campus entrances earlier in 2022 information booklets to inform and educate people about the monkeys and how to interact with them will also be distributed.

Barends has also been having discussions (and has been having for the past three months) with experts around the country on how to deal with the wild animals.

One of the expert organisations that visited the NWU was the Community Led Animal Welfare (CLAW). It gave advice to the university about the monkeys.

Barends explains that the growing size of the monkey population and conflict with humans have made it urgent for the campus to respond, starting with creating awareness and by informing students and staff how to act and react in the presence of the monkey.

In one incident earlier this year a student was bitten in the leg. In another a student was hit by a paintball ball thrown by a monkey. The monkey got the paintball ball from the student tried to shoot it.

What to do when a monkey is in the room

In September a vervet monkey tried to enter a first-year student’s room on the ground floor of the Vergeet-My-Nie women’s residence. Her friend tried to help by shooing the monkey and by using a vuvuzela to scare it off.  

Zoologist Venter explains what the students could have done differently in the situation: “The first thing that she did wrong was to attack the monkey. The second thing that she did wrong was [to] scream. The third thing was she did not stand still. If you look closely at the video she unintentionally aggravated the monkey to a point where it started attacking her. The monkey started to react as if it needed to protect itself.”

But it is not only on-campus Potchefstroom residents who are encountering the monkeys. Sandra Ströh the manager of Groen Wilgers, a retirement village next to the Potchefstroom Campus, says that the residents have had big problems with the monkeys as they enter the apartments of the residents and steal their belongings. 

She indicates that they act aggressively towards the residents and that it is a very big problem for them. Ströh adds that they have a cage to catch the monkeys. They then call nature conservation which removes the monkeys from the area.

Do the monkeys live on campus?

Venter points out that it is a misconception that the monkeys live on the campus. He explains that the initial reason why the animals moved onto campus was due to the destruction of their natural habitat at Dassierand, near Witrand Hospital and next to Mediclinic, as well as the massive construction of student accommodation in and around the campus and towards Waterberry estate. 

This led to the destruction of wooded or natural areas and an increase in human building density areas. This pushed the monkeys towards areas where there are trees and open spaces, like the campus. 

Venter, who is from the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences warns that the monkeys are increasing in numbers.

He says that the campus’ community adds to the problem when they feed the vervet monkeys on campus. “Let them be and [let them] fend for themselves,” is his advice.

Venter indicates that there are four groups (about 50-60 monkeys in each group) of monkeys that are occasionally found on campus and they are on campus because it is an easy-to-find-food hotspot. The monkeys have learned that people have food for them, thus they associate people with food.

Venter warns that students and staff have to take note that the monkeys will be more aggressive during spring as there are baby monkeys. Since the monkeys have lost some of their instinct to be afraid of humans, and because they want the food in human hands, they will appear on campus more regularly.

Feedback from students

Beàtha Groenewald, secretary of the Student Campus Council (SCC), who spoke to threestreamsmedia before the recent SCC election, says that the monkey numbers rose dramatically during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Due to Covid-19 in 2020-2022 the campus [residents] had to evacuate – leaving our beautiful campus open for exploration for our monkeys,” says Groenewald. As the monkey numbers were very high, “students felt like intruders” in the monkey’s natural habitat.

Groenewald indicates that the SCC asked students (residences, chapters and private students) to submit plans during the Value Your Environment Week earlier in 2022 to lower the monkey numbers, in a harmless (without ammunition or poison) manner.

“The main solution was implementing monkey-proof dustbins to cut off their main food source. These plans were submitted to the NWU Management, and implementation will be from their side” says Groenewald. By Petra van Graan