http://nypost.com/2013/09/12/herpes-infected-monkeys-terrorize-florida/
I have never been able to get close
enough for a good photo on the Silver River never mind getting bitten. But as they are wild, the thought always occurs to me that I don’t want one in my boat. So I don’t paddle under branches where they perch.
Good article.
Back in the 70s, there were rhesus
monkeys in the psychology lab, and also stumptail monkeys. The staff knew that the rhesus monkeys had herpes, and at that time, herpes was much harder to treat than it is now. The stumptail monkeys were “clean.”
In subsequent work at a hospital where there were many patients who had been sharing needles on the streets, we staff were required to be vaccinated for two varieties of herpes. I don’t remember which ones.
idiot tour operator
Just don’t sleep with them
We have seen them dozens of times.
Our first encounter was years ago when we were paddling up river and all of a sudden got pelted with pine cones and twigs from the overhead canopy.
Other times we have paddled up to within a few feet of them, but kept just enough distance so they couldn’t leap onto the kayaks. They are always begging for food.
But the neatest experience we had was one year when the whole area was flooded with high water, and we heard a lot of splashing off in the woods. We paddled toward the noise as close as we could get, and then got out of the boats and slogged another hundred feet or so and came on a sight that I’ll never forget.
There was a band of about twenty or thirty of them, and the young juveniles would one at as time scamper up a tree to it’s highest point, go out on a limb and then jump out and land in a few feet of water with a mighty splash, while the others would all be chattering away as if they were cheering each one on.
The larger adults were hanging around in a circle keeping an eye on them. We watched for about ten minutes, and then one of the adults spotted us and let out some sort of call, and within seconds they all took off into the forest.
We have hundreds of pictures of all encounters with them.
I heard that the state gave up trying to eradicate them years ago, and I’m glad.
They are part of the area now, just like the Burmese Pythons will be in the Everglades ten or twenty years from now.
Jack L
I’ve had one charge me…
– Last Updated: Sep-13-13 8:42 PM EST –
but I deserved it. I got in too close to the troop photographing the babies. The dominant male came tearing towards me making it clear that he was highly agitated. He had me back paddling as fast as I could. He's just protecting the family.
If he had been truly after me, he could have circled around behind me in the trees long before I could have backed out.
Fun stuff.
T
Edit: Whoever wrote that article deserves an "A" for sensationalizing the news. Terrorizing? Eating dirt and spiders? What a dope.
Nice…
Heck of a sight. Heck of a memory. Wow.