The eThekwini Municipality will rely on a science-led strategy by the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg campus (UKZN-PMB) to manage wildlife interactions between humans and monkeys.
Image: Christo Ras/Pixabay
The eThekwini Municipality is looking towards a science-led strategy to manage urban wildlife interactions between humans and Vervet monkeys.
The municipality intends to collaborate with the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg campus (UKZN-PMB), to devise a more informed and scientifically supported approach to managing the challenges residents have with monkeys.
The municipality intends to partner with the UKZN-PMB to protect, conserve, and educate the public about the city’s unique biodiversity, plants, animals, and habitats.
The municipality will undertake the proposed initiative through the eThekwini Natural Resources Division (NRD), the Durban Natural Science Museum and Biodiversity Management.
The proposed approach adopts a solution-based citizen involving the collection of accurate, ground truth data using a newly developed application.
Zama Sokhabase, chairperson of the municipality's Community Services Committee, said the proposed project aims to promote the application of urban conservation principles informed by credible research and broad stakeholder collaborations to resolve human-wildlife interaction issues.
Sokhabase said that urban development has led to habitat loss and fragmentation, resulting in increasing human-monkey conflicts within eThekwini.
“Currently, there is a significant lack of scientific evidence regarding the expansion of the vervet monkey population beyond sustainable levels, and no comprehensive database exists on the number of monkey troops within the city,” Sokhabase said.
To address the knowledge gap and mitigate conflicts, the partnership with the UKZN PMB on a new citizen science project aims to record the numbers of mammalian species, particularly the vervet monkey, within neighbourhoods. She said, this will support evidence-based conservation and management solutions.
Due to the narrowing of the urban wilderness interface caused by expansion, the municipality believes that encounters with local wildlife are set to increase as natural home ranges are transformed.
“Vervet monkeys are highly adaptable and intelligent primates, and when natural food sources are no longer available, they are readily attracted to refuse bins and kitchens,” she said.
Conservation authorities within the municipality have observed that areas with minimal human interference in vervet monkey troops tend to experience fewer reported incidents.
“This has led to the conclusion that a non-intrusive management approach is often more effective, as traditional conflict management techniques have, in some instances, proven to be ineffective or counterproductive,” Sokhabase said.
Through collaboration, stakeholders will be better positioned to understand the movement patterns and behavioural dynamics of the vervet monkey population. Sokhabase said that this in turn, will enable the municipality to transition from reactive and potentially harmful interventions toward a more informed, conservation-driven approach that supports both the protection of residents' property and the safe co-existence of urban wildlife within human settlements.
The project will collect reliable data on species presence and population numbers to inform conservation planning and management. The initiative also encourages residents to participate by utilising the field app (or web-based platform) to record sightings, movement patterns and other relevant observations of monkeys within their respective areas.
She said that the continued use and promotion of the citizen science mobile application and web-based platform among residents as a key tool for collecting data on vervet monkey troop movements and population dynamics.
The promotion of proactive urban conservation principles includes encouraging residents to implement non-aggressive mitigation measures, such as securing food sources, practising proper waste management, and installing monkey-proofing interventions.
The municipality intends to conserve public green spaces and plant indigenous vegetation to support natural food sources for wildlife, rather than focusing on removing vegetation.
zainul.dawood@inl.co.za