Street Monkeys Premiere
A member of the Pani Troop enjoys a free snack.
I’ve got a soft spot for cute and cuddlies. I also have a penchant for some good drama from time to time. A few weeks ago I found the perfect fix: Street Monkeys.
This new series, airing every Sunday night on Smithsonian Channel, is wonderfully entertaining. Watching rival gangs of vervet monkeys love, fight, bicker, and fight some more is truly engrossing. The brazen and resourceful monkeys are adapting to life on a golf resort and their daily interactions are never boring.
The filmmakers did a great job of capturing the dynamics of rival monkey troops the Pani Troop and the Sugar Cane Gang, along with the quirky character traits of individual vervet monkeys. Because vocal communication in vervets is well studied, it’s easy for the camera crew and the viewer to pick up on their predator-sensitive alarm calls. After a few episodes I was convinced I could speak vervet myself, recognizing the calls for leopards, eagles and pythons. If they only had an alarm call for their new urban predator, the car, they would be in much better shape! Or a nifty monkey bridge might do the trick as well.
While the playful nature of the monkeys provides plenty of endearing moments, the threats in their resort town are often as frightening as the predators they face in the wild. Living in close proximity to humans often leads to life threatening situations. When the adorable Wingnut gets a hold of a package of human pharmaceuticals the results are heart wrenching. Watch the clip below and tell me you’re not on the edge of your seat, begging for the little guy to get up!
Needless to say, when it’s snowing outside this Sunday, you’ll find me on my couch, in a Snuggie enjoying the premiere of Street Monkeys.
Tags: Monkey, Street Monkeys, Vervet
March 17th, 2009 at 6:30 pm
i like the show, but i find the unspoken, vaguely hinted at aftermath of apartheid unpalatable. whites still seem to be in possession of unequal privilege. i know that is not what the show is about, but it is there, for anyone who does not want to be blind to it. i find some of the comments of the south africans absurd, and the film makers seem to be subtly acknowledging that absurdity. the blond woman who feeds the monkeys makes a statement, seemingly oblivious to the irony of how her wealth came about, that generally vervets are seen as a lower class citizen, and i don’t think it’s fair to discriminate against or classing animals in a different light. as she says this, her black servant does the gardening in the background. i would rather see just the monkeys. i can’t help noticing and being upset by the contrast between the status and positions of the blacks and whites. can’t we get a monkey show in any but the very worst of african countries?
March 23rd, 2009 at 2:35 pm
After reading the post above… I am certain we are going to destroy ourselves.
Hey Lady…
Humans are designed for deception, deceit, and domination over another.
Our intellect tell us we can not survive alone so we must create alliances in order to strengthen our own position. Our intellect tells us that we cannot dominate the earth because we as a species will die out. Life will continue with or with out us. In the larger scheme the earth is better with out us. So if we really want to “go green” all of humanity must be removed. So make an example of yourself for us… wait this sounds crazy right… no crazy than a person thousands miles away from a war zone watching monkies over Comcast on her HD TV creating a huge carbon foot print. Go ahead pick and choose your hypocritical notions as we all do…
We are natures mistake.
March 23rd, 2009 at 2:40 pm
The show is about the Vervets society and mankind clashing. The little Vervets are coping with the changes around them and here is their story. I like them better than American Idol.
September 6th, 2009 at 1:02 pm
This is a show about Vervet monkeys, their interactions amongst their own groups and between groups, it also tells their tale of living amongst humans. I’m offended that you would drag your personal political beliefs into this cute and wonderful show. Sometimes a show about monkeys is just a show about monkeys….if you can’t enjoy that then I do feel sorry for you.
October 27th, 2009 at 2:02 am
Sure, the intent of the show is to entertainingly portray the intricate interactions of the cute little monkeys. They do seem to be relatively intelligent, and yes, cute. Nothing wrong with the concept, I suppose. But if you’re sitting thousands of miles away in your snuggie on the “weekend”, eating popcorn and feeling all nice, fat and warm, you are so far removed from the realities of this world that you do not deserve, in the least, to be “entertained”. You should be watching a show about de-facto apartheid, genocide, genital mutilation, starvation, destitution, mass murder, religious hatred and radicalism, piracy, or anarchy. All of those atrocities, and more, are happening close by on the same continent that these cute little monkeys call home, to people of color who don’t live on a freakin’ golf course, or even know what one is.
I love animals. I enjoy shows about them. But I try to keep things in perspective, too.
One last thing regarding the cute little monkey getting sick because some ignorant fools left their windows open, thus providing convenient access to the bathroom pharmaceuticals: funny how there was a hand-held camera, right there, in the very same bathroom, filming the whole scene, yet nothing was done to prevent the Vervet from sucking down a bottle of drugs. Doing so might have interfered with the entertainment requirements of some coddled American sitting in her home far away in America, no doubt. Can’t have that. They need the ratings, after all… I just wonder, was the Humane Society there to monitor all the “action”?
October 27th, 2009 at 8:48 am
I wonder, PJ, what you are doing to be so self-righteous in your judgment? You admittedly watch the show and state that you enjoy “animal shows,” but you blast the person who writes about watching it at home? I smell a rat named hypocrisy. Perhaps I’m being a bit remiss, and perhaps you are enjoying the show from some tent in a destitute country. Are you, in fact, actively fighting the atrocities you list? Oh no wait, you’re just sitting in the comfort of your home, or perhaps at work, diligently dismissing the ideas of others. But, more likely, I have no clue how you lead your life, just as you have no idea of the life of the person who blogged about the show. That person may have seen more in their life than you ever will, have experienced more about the world than you ever will, but you will just choose to spew forth your uneducated opinion and assume the worst. Actually, that’s a fun game–to just judge people without any basis takes much less brain power. I’m sure you’re just conserving that energy for something much more useful. Like seemingly calling for tolerance and equality, but then calling someone fat on a blog…hmmm, that doesn’t seem like you at all, PJ.
And while I’m at it, perhaps you also think those that filmed “Wild Kingdom” should have stopped the lions from attacking their prey. That the Humane Society should be guarding these monkeys at all times would indeed be a utopian ideal, but the fact of the matter is, whether with or without the cameras rolling, these monkeys would act the same way. That is their nature, unfortunately. Just as, unfortunately, it is natural for humans like you to exist who quickly judge others without even knowing them.
December 2nd, 2009 at 2:27 pm
Such a wonderful show. It’s my cat’s favorite. He sits still and watches the entire program [I like it too]. When can I buy the DVDs?
December 3rd, 2009 at 11:19 am
Hi Betty,
Unfortunately we don’t have the rights to distribute DVDs for this program in the U.S., but maybe you can find it internationally. The producer is Icon Films, based in the UK. http://www.iconfilms.co.uk/web/