Home range and habitat use of vervet monkeys in the urban forest mosaic landscape of Durban, eThekwini Municipality, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Generally, urbanisation affects biodiversity negatively; however, some species thrive in urban areas. One mammalian species thriving in the urban forest mosaic landscape is the vervet monkey (Chlorocebus pygerythrus), particularly in Durban, eThekwini Municipality, KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa. Vervet monkeys' spatial use can provide important ecological information to understand their behavioural plasticity in an urban forest mosaic landscape. We, therefore, captured and collared vervet monkeys with Global Positioning System (GPS)-Ultra High Frequency (UHF) transmitters in two sites of varying degrees of urban and natural land-use types within eThekwini. Three home range methods Minimum Convex Polygon (MCP), Kernel Density Estimator (KDE), and Local Convex Hull (LoCoH) were used to determine individual home range size and core area use. Home range (30.7 ha 95% KDE) and core area (6.5 ha 50% KDE) estimates were relatively small for these vervet monkeys. Forest and thicket, and built-up habitat types were most used by vervet monkeys across the urban forest mosaic landscape. Overall, individuals in this study showed that the vervet monkeys, regardless of the environment, can successfully exist across the urban forest mosaic landscape. The spatial ecology of urban vervet monkeys provides valuable information for future education and management interventions, especially where there are negative human-monkey interactions amongst urban communities.

Automated summary

Urbanisation generally has a negative impact on biodiversity, but some species, like the vervet monkey, thrive in urban areas. In this study, we used GPS transmitters to track vervet monkeys in an urban forest mosaic landscape in Durban, South Africa. The monkeys had relatively small home range sizes and preferentially used forest, thicket, and built-up habitats. The spatial ecology of urban vervet monkeys provides important information for future management interventions and addressing human-monkey conflicts.