The Story of the Little Green Monkey

A little while ago I wrote about 'The Story of the little White-Faced Owl' especially for my granddaughter. Alyssa enjoyed the story, and asked for another one about a monkey because her favourite soft toy is a monkey called 'Oo Oo' (because that's what monkeys say!). I had intended just to send it to her, but so many people commented that they enjoyed the story of the owl that I thought I would put the next story up for everyone to read as well.

The Story of the Little Green Monkey

This is a true story that happened at Balaba Nature Camp in The Gambia.

Lamin has been living at Balaba for a very long time – nearly 17 years. When he first came here, there was nobody else living anywhere near Balaba. It was in the middle of the forest, with many tall trees all around, and only a few narrow tracks to walk through. Because Lamin was the only person living here, there were plenty of places for the birds and the animals to live. Deer used to walk through the tall grass looking for somewhere to feed, birds hopped around in the trees, and sometimes hyenas trotted along the track outside the camp.

Lamin wanted to help the birds and animals, so he put water out for them to drink. The birds used to love coming to drink and have a bath, because it doesn't rain much in the Gambia so it was hard for them to find water.

But best of all, the forest was home to the monkeys! Lots of monkeys used to swing through the trees, looking for food and playing together. There are two kinds of monkeys in the Gambia: The red vervet monkeys and the green vervet monkeys. Can you imagine a green monkey? Well, they are not bright green, but their fur does look quite green if you get close to them. The red monkeys are very shy, and will hide away if they hear you coming, so it's often hard to see them, but the green monkeys are much braver, and sometimes they would come into the camp to see what was happening.

One day Lamin noticed a little green monkey.

The little green monkey

It would sit in the trees and watch what was going on, but at first it was too scared to come down and look closely. But gradually, day by day, the little green monkey got more and more bold, and it began to come down and investigate the camp.

Eventually the little green monkey decided that it wasn't frightened any more, and so it began to come closer to the chickens and the dogs that lived at Balaba. Of course, at first the chickens were afraid of the monkey, and the dogs weren't very sure about him either, because dogs and monkeys aren't usually friends. But, bit by bit, they learned more about each other, and realised that even though they were different, they could still be friends. So they used to play together on a big pile of sand near the gate; sometimes the dogs would chase the monkey, and sometimes the little green monkey would chase the dogs, and sometimes the monkey even rode on the dogs' backs! I wonder what the dogs thought about that?

The little green monkey liked to see what the visitors at Balaba did as well. One day he was sitting, eating a red fruit from the netto tree, when he heard some visitors talking.

The little green monkey eating some netto fruit

He was a rather nosy monkey, so he jumped through the trees to get a bit closer and see what was going on.

Jumping through the trees

The visitors were just as surprised to see the monkey, and they tried to take photos with their camera – here is a picture of my friend Naomi trying to take a photo. Can you see the little green monkey?

Trying to take a photo

He came closer and closer, looking carefully at what the visitors were doing.

Look how close the little green monkey is!

Nowadays there are many more people living near Balaba, and lots of the trees have been chopped down to make room for houses, so we don't see monkeys here any more. But Lamin hasn't chopped down his trees – he keep them so that the birds and animals have somewhere to live, and he still puts out water for the birds and animals to come and drink. So Balaba is lovely and shady, and dozens of birds come down to drink and take a bath.

Lots of birds!