Monkeys Aren’t Native To Florida, But One Man Brought 12 Of Them During The ’30s And Their Population Ballooned Past 1,000

Florida is known for many things, one of which is that it can “rain” monkeys in certain places.

Kind of.

When people ride a boat down Silver Springs River, they sometimes get lucky (or unlucky) to see monkeys jumping and falling off the tree branches above into the water.

This is cool on its own, but then you might wonder where those monkeys came from. They are not, after all, native to Florida at all.

The monkeys were imported in the 1930s by a man named Colonel Tooey. He ran a jungle cruise boat on Silver Springs, providing guests with a fun ride.

He thought that he could make the ride even more exciting by bringing monkeys to the island. Monkeys were seen as exotic animals, so guests would pay him to enjoy a trip down the river while seeing these amazing creatures.

At the time, he imported 12 rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) monkeys, which are native to southern and eastern Asia. The monkeys really thrived in their new home and quickly got down to monkey business.

By the 1980s, there were so many monkeys that the authorities stepped in and trapped 1000 of them between 1984 and 2012. The most recent estimates say that there are about 176 monkeys left, spread out across five separate groups.

Today, that number is likely much higher.

It is a constant debate in the region whether the monkeys should be eliminated entirely, if they should be left alone to become a part of the ecosystem, or if they should remain, but with efforts made to keep their numbers manageable.

So far, that third option has been the default answer. If the monkeys grow too overpopulated or they become a nuisance, some will be trapped and relocated, but there has been no real effort to eliminate them.

At least for now, that means that while you are enjoying a calm ride down the river, you need to keep an eye on the trees to see if the monkeys will be jumping in around you to take a dip.

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