Steve and Daniel need to act quickly. They’re heading out to sea to save the monkeys before they hit international waters.
Richards Bay, KZN (16 September 2025) – An urgent monkey rescue is unfolding off SA’s east coast right now!
Three vervet monkeys have been spotted running along the containers of an anchored ship about 90 minutes out to sea, and two seasoned rescuers are on their way to bring them back to safety.
At anchor off Richards Bay, the crew noticed three vervets darting between stacked containers. No one knows exactly when or how they hopped aboard, but harbour-edge troops are curious and clever; it’s entirely possible they followed food smells or clambered up mooring lines during loading and simply didn’t hop off before the ship moved out.
With the vessel holding offshore, there’s a small window to act before it departs for international waters, which comes with a serious risk of safety for the little primates.
In come our heroes, Monkey Helpline’s Steve Smit and Daniel Stewart. The two are heading out by tug to the anchored ship as we speak. When they arrive they will board, locate the monkeys, and try to capture them safely.
It’s a tricky mission. Vervets are fast, agile, and can vanish into hand-width gaps between containers. Timing matters, and so does handling the stressful situation calmly.
It’s urgent for two reasons. The first and most obvious being that a working cargo ship is no place for small monkeys, it’s dangerous. The second and most urgent is that if the ship sails, the monkeys could find themselves in another country. This would put them at risk of undergoing invasive-species protocols. It would mean far more uncertainty for the animals.
“The two will need to go via tug to the anchored ship, embark and hopefully catch these guys quickly so they don’t end up in another country,” shares Monkey Helpline’s Carol Booth.
A clean, humane catch-and-return near their home range is the best possible outcome right now.
Steve Smit co-leads Monkey Helpline, a KZN-based volunteer organisation that responds to over a thousand monkey rescues a year across the province. Everything from car strikes and dog conflicts to snaring, electrocutions and orphaned babies.
The NPO’s operation includes a high-care unit and a rehabilitation and sanctuary centre where injured or orphaned vervets recover and, where possible, return to the wild.
Daniel Stewart is part of the hands-on rescue network that gets called for complicated jobs like today’s ocean detour.
Once the monkeys are secured, the plan would be to safely return them to shore, vet-check as needed, and reunite them with familiar habitat.
It makes us giddy how good people show up for wildlife, often dropping everything to do so.
Hopefully, three curious vervets will be back on solid ground tonight. We’ll share an update as soon as Steve and Daniel are back with news from the ship. For now, fingers crossed.
Good luck, be safe, and thank you to our monkey heroes!
And in a heartfelt update, the gents are on the tugboat! Stay tuned for more.
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