Monkey Heist!
Field Blog by International Intern, Louise Warden
The day had finally arrived… I couldn’t have been more excited, today is the day I get to visit Tsavo East National Park, Kenya with the Save the Elephants team. We got to the Voi gate at 7am and patiently waited for our tickets to be issued but then… all hell breaks loose! A troop of vervet monkeys come charging through and swing straight through the open window of the 4×4 to steal a packet of biscuits left on the back seat. The cheeky little monkeys then proceed to chase each other through the trees, meanwhile chunks of chocolate chip cookie are flying at our heads! Even a mother with a tiny new born baby clinging for dear life to her chest was swinging around the trees chasing the sort after packet of choccy biscuits.

Cheeky vervet monkey after jumping on the car
As we’re all watching in amusement, the rangers are trying to grab the packet of biscuits from the monkeys with little success, the monkeys running circles around them. As the empty packet falls out of the trees the cheeky monkeys scramble to pick up any last remains.
The monkeys, now extremely happy with themselves having completed a very successful biscuit heist can be seen sitting with multiple biscuits in each hand and hamster style cheeks stuffed to the brim with our chocolate biscuits! How could anyone be angry, the whole scene was hilarious!
To top it off as we walked back to the scene of the crime and got back into the car, what was awaiting us on the drivers’ seat… a final deposit from our monkey friends, a rather large monkey poo. I think we can all agree the monkeys won this round… monkeys-1: humans-0.
Photo credits: Emilia Malmstrom
The views, opinions and position expressed in this article belong solely to the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy and position of Save the Elephants
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