Primates roam Senegal in packs in the wild and are also kept as pets. They are most often viewed as pests by farmers, but some locals have realized the money-making potential and host tours of their natural habitats, most often for tourists. My host family members thought it was very strange that we paid money to go visit monkeys, feed them, and let them climb all over us. I feel like the equivalent for us could be if we did the same for raccoons. They sure are cute, but they usually have diseases and shouldn't be played with.
The monkeys who live here come in a few different forms. The Patas monkeys, which roam my area of Senegal, are tall and lanky with reddish brown fur. They have distinct, bushy eyebrows with serious features. The females' noses turn white when they are pregnant. The green monkeys and the red monkeys who live northwest of my area on the coast of West Africa are, well, what they sound like. The green monkeys have green-tinted fur, and the red monkeys are mostly black with long, silky hair and an underside that is a bright orangy-red. Baboons are also native to the area, specifically near the Gambian riverbanks, less than 10 miles away.
