This looks like a sleeping baby monkey but the harsh reality is that nature can be as cruel as it can be cute and fluffy.

This is in fact a dead baby vervet.

It had just been killed seconds before we arrived. It’s grief stricken mother sat with it briefly and then walked away.

Two other monkeys nearby – a mother and baby – had terrible bite marks on their backs so we can only assume that a male vervet attacked both mothers and babies. New dominant males in monkey families will kill all the babies that aren’t sired by them.

It was a sad thing to witness especially as the baby was lying in a perfect foetal position as though it had just curled up on the grass to sleep.

In the main black and white image, I thought about removing the blade of grass from across the baby’s eye but wanted the image to be as authentic as possible …