Sint Maarten Plans to Wipe Out Entire Local Vervet Monkey Population

As part of measures against the destruction of local flora and fauna and to prevent further negative impacts from invasive species, the authorities decided to eradicate the entire population of vervet monkeys.

The Dutch Sint Maarten authorities will finance the capture and euthanasia of at least 450 vervet monkeys over the next three years in the territory bordering the French Collectivity of Saint Martin. The Nature Foundation Sint Maarten NGO will receive funds to carry out the extermination.

"When a species establishes a population in an area that it isn’t native to there are often no predators to keep the population size under control," said the foundation’s manager, Leslie Hickerson. "Species management is an important aspect of keeping the island healthy for those who come after us."

According to researchers, there were around 450 vervets living in Dutch Sint Maarten in 2020. The number of monkeys in the state is expected to continue to grow, threatening local ecosystems. Among other things, they destroy farmers' crops.

The Vervet Monkey Foundation has criticized plans to exterminate the monkeys and its founder Dave Du Toit has suggested "vasectomizing the males and sterilizing the females" instead.

Vervets are native to southern and eastern Africa but are also found in large numbers in the Caribbean islands. Monkeys were introduced to the latter region around the 17th century. European settlers are thought to have introduced primates as exotic pets.

In December 2022, the Nature Foundation Sint Maarten received a grant of $55,000 per year to study the impact of invasive species on native wildlife. The project itself started in 2020 and aimed not only to study but also to develop measures to prevent the negative impact.

"The foundation proposed two management options when requesting funding for these activities, one of which was a sterilization program and one which was a population management program," said Hickerson, adding that "the funding received to execute the project was the minimum requested in order to start managing the population."