Florida is home to some of the strangest sights in the country.
One resident of the state saw something that had him questioning everything.
And a Florida man thought he was hallucinating when one scary thing was swinging in the trees.
Florida man sees a monkey roaming around in the wild
Tour boat operator Colin Innes could not believe his eyes when he saw a monkey playing in the trees along the banks of St. Johns River in Debary, Florida.
Innes had never seen a monkey in the area before.
“I looked up into a tree and kind of went, ‘What’s that!?’” Innes recalled. “I got a little bit closer and realized that I had a monkey probably about 30 feet from me. And trust me, that’s not something you see out here on a regular basis whatsoever, so I was shocked.”
He decided to record the monkey as it went swinging through the trees.
“Ended up following him for about half an hour and just taking as much video and pictures as I could because that’s not something you see around here very often,” Innes stated.
Innes called the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) about the monkey.
It was one of several sightings of monkeys in the Volusia County area.
People have been seeing monkeys all over the west side of Volusia County, creating some serious monkey business for residents. Experts put the warning out, though: steer clear if you see one.#monkeys #animals #wildflorida #strangeflorida pic.twitter.com/knzrkuAcOJ
— News 6 WKMG (@news6wkmg) December 12, 2024
DeBary, Deltona, Orange City, and Deland residents spotted monkeys roaming around in their neighborhoods.
Primate Paradise founder Lin Wasko said the monkey was a Rhesus macaque.
She speculated that Hurricane Milton could have forced them from their habitats.
“The sightings in Deltona are likely due to the flooding in the area,” Wasko said. “There’s been a lot of flooding.”
The monkeys like to stay close to the river because it is a source of water and food.
“There is a food supply along there, the water,” Wasko explained. “And rhesus macaques can swim. So if you go down the river from the Silver Springs in a kayak, you’ll see them jumping in the water and swimming.”
Monkeys were brought to Florida as a tourist attraction
Rhesus macaque monkeys typically live in North Africa and Asia, but an enterprising tour boat operator brought them to Florida in the 1930s.
Colonel Tooey released six of them on an island in the Silver River as part of his Jungle Cruise trip.
He did not realize that rhesus macaque monkeys knew how to swim.
The monkeys escaped the island and began to reproduce which created the current colony that inhabits the Silver Spring State Park.
Occasionally, the monkeys will venture out from the area or be driven out because of the weather.
The FWC estimated that there were about 200 monkeys living in the park.
Rhesus macaque monkeys carry diseases that can infect humans.
DeBary resident Jim Page saw a monkey hanging out on his back patio.
“My girl Angela was in bed, so I started screaming, ‘Angela! Angela! There’s a monkey outside! There’s a monkey!’” Page said. “She came out of bed, looked over, and sure enough, it was right there.”
Page said that the monkey looked like a baboon with a pink face and estimated it weighed 50 pounds.
“It was definitely a big creature,” Page added.
Florida residents have to deal with some monkey business that they never expected.
DeSantis Daily will keep you up-to-date on any new developments in this story.
