Vervet Monkey (Chlorocebus pygerythrus) Fact Sheet: Population & Conservation Status

Common and abundant in many areas (Kingdon et al. 2008)

• Distribution patchy over its extensive range

Prone to local extinction (Isbell and Enstam-Jaffe 2013)

• Factors effecting regional declines
  • Heavy predation
  • Die-off of Acacia spp.
    • In Amboseli, park fences (to restrict human access) confined elephants; increased elephant traffic damaged trees and lowered sapling recruitment
    • Loss of sleeping and foraging habitat precede vervet population declines (Cheney and Seyfarth 1990)
  • Low female recruitment
  • Human encroachment
  • Habitat destruction

IUCN Status

• Least Concern (2022 assessment) (Butynski and De Jong 2022)
  • Wide geographical range
  • Population declines not significant enough to warrant listing in a higher threat category

CITES Status

• Appendix II (UNEP 2018)

Other Status

• African Convention on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, Class B (Kingdon et al. 2008)

No major threats (Kingdon et al. 2008)
Persecution by humans (from Kingdon et al. 2008)

• Classed as vermin in parts of its range; shot and hunted by landowners
  • Farmers kill vervets that raid crops
• Consumed as bushmeat in some areas
• Turkana District, Kenya

Actions needed

• Population surveys (Isbell and Enstam-Jaffe 2013)
  • Vervets live in small, isolated populations and few have been suitably studied
• Further taxonomic research (Kingdon et al. 2008)
  • To assess the validity of proposed subspecies

Cheney and Seyfarth (1990)
Isbell and Enstam-Jaffe (2013)
Kingdon et al. (2008)