Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumMonkeys near Florida airport delight visitors
DANIA BEACH, Fla. (AP) As departing jetliners roared overhead, an aging vervet monkey moped on a mangrove branch one recent afternoon in the woods he inhabits near a South Florida airport, his ego bruised.
Mikey, as he is called by his human observers, has long been the laid-back alpha male of a troop of monkeys ruling this tract of land, tucked off a busy runway at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. But this day he lost when challenged by a feisty youngster called Spike. Mikey fled screaming and was now sullenly staring at humans watching him from 15 feet (4 meters) away.
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The United States has no native monkeys, but the smallish vervets have roamed Dania Beach since the late 1940s after a dozen brought from West Africa fled a now long-closed breeding facility and roadside zoo. Today, 40 descendants are broken into four troops living within 1,500 acres (600 hectares) around the airport. Florida also has a few colonies of escaped macaques and squirrel monkeys.
Florida wildlife officials often kill invasive species to protect native animals. But they tolerate the vervets, if they stay put. The monkeys are local celebrities, their travails detailed by TV and newspapers, and popular visitors with nearby workers, who feed them despite signs saying thats illegal.
https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-florida-united-states-fort-lauderdale-monkeys-6fb23b6b9a3c52613184e1cf4875070c
mitch96
(13,904 posts)on Dania Beach Blvd near the intercostal.. He apparently hit a monkey and got out to see what condition the little guy was in. He did not make it and the other monkeys in the mangroves came out and ATTACKED the guy. He jumped in his car after suffering some bites and took off.. Yeah, it's Florida all right.
m
skydive forever
(444 posts)living near Crystal River in central Florida. Story is they were brought in to film the original Tarzan and left on an island in the middle of the river. Producer didn't know that monkeys could swim and just made themselves at home there and have been there ever since.