Studies done on vervet monkeys involve their communication and alarm calls, specifically in regard to kin and group recognition, and particular predator sightings.

It is not found west of the East African Rift or the Luangwa River,[1] where it is replaced by the closely related malbrouck (C. cynosuros) species.

The vervet monkey inhabits savanna, riverine woodland, coastal forest, and mountains up to 4000 m (13,100 ft).

They are adaptable and able to persist in secondary and/or highly fragmented vegetation, including cultivated areas, and sometimes are found living in both rural and urban environments.

[2] Annual home range size has been observed to be as high as 176 ha, with an average population density of 54.68 animals/km2.

Vervet monkeys that are naturalised (introduced by humans) are found in Cape Verde, Ascension Island, Saint Helena, St Kitts and Nevis, and Barbados.

[15][16] The species exhibits sexual dimorphism; the males are larger in weight and body length and may be recognized by a turquoise-blue scrotum.

Between unrelated individuals, female competition exists for grooming members of high-ranking families, presumably to gain more access to resources.

These observations suggest individual recognition is possible and enables discrimination of genetic relatedness and social status.

Further, both males and females may redirect aggression towards individuals in which both had close relatives that were previously involved in a conflict.

[22] As infants, vervets learn to make the variety of calls from observation alone, without explicit tutelage.

In the wild, they have been seen giving a different call when seeing a human being approaching, leading researchers to believe that vervet monkeys may have a way of distinguishing between different land and flight predators.

Offspring are usually not born in extremely close time proximity due to the interbirth period of the mother.

The clarity of the familial and sibships within a group may act as a form of alliance, which would come at relatively low cost in regards to grooming.

While all group members participate in infant caretaking, juvenile females that cannot yet menstruate are responsible for the majority of allomothering.

At the same time, allomothers gain experience in rearing infants, and had more success in raising their own offspring.

[27] Grandmothers and grandchildren share one-quarter of their genes, so they should be more likely to form affiliative relationships than unrelated members in a group.

While energy is being lost on destroying the food, an advantage is obtained by the individual due to an increase in competitive gain.

[29] Female vervets do not have external signs indicating estrus, thus elaborate social behaviors involving reproduction do not occur.

Typically, a female gives birth once a year, between September and February, after a gestation period around 165 days.

In agricultural areas, vervets become problem animals, as they raid bean, pea, young tobacco, vegetable, fruit, and grain crops.

Raids of cattle egrets and weaver bird nests have been observed where the vervets eat the eggs and chicks.

[34] Excavations dated to the end of the 1st century AD from Berenike, a Roman-Egyptian port-town on the Red Sea coast, demonstrate that vervet monkeys must have been kept as pets at that time.