Florida Airport Monkeys Are From the Lineage of Zoo Escapees in 1948

A colony of wild African green monkeys inhabiting close to the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport finally gets an origin story.

Chlorocebus sabaeus

Wild African monkeys that are much-beloved living close to the Fort Lauderdale airport are the offsprings of a group of zoo escapees from 1948. Local lore long believed that the monkeys (Chlorocebus sabaeus) may have come from a private zoo that failed, but a recent genetic study and historical deep investigation into the history of the region now gives a confirmation that the monkeys' ancestors originated from the Darnia Chimpanzee Farm, which was closed in 1956.

The private zoo ship in monkeys so they can be used for animal research and also serve as a roadside attraction, complete with alligator fighting. Researchers headed by a biologist at Florida Atlantic University, Deborah "Missy" Williams, are presently making effort to conserve the small number of escapee descendants, they are just 36, living not too far from the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and close to Dania Beach.

Williams and her team produced a database of the whole 36 monkeys' appearances and carried out a genetic analysis to identify where the ancestors of the animals originate from. Historical records proposed that Darnia Chimpanzee Farm shipped in its monkeys from Sierra Leone.

Genetic Analysis

A genetic analysis of two fragments of DNA from the Y chromosomes of the male monkeys and a single fragment of mitochondrial DNA, which is inherited only through the maternal line, disclosed that the monkeys are green monkeys, there were given the name because of the greenish tinge to their predominant brown fur.

Green monkeys are closely akin to vervet monkeys, and at times the terms are interchangeably used. The researchers reported on May 8 in the journal Primates that the ancestors of the Florida monkey came from western Africa.

The monkeys are also famous for their golden-tipped tales and, blue scrota in males. South Florida is also an abode to populations of two other monkey species: squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus) and rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) that are introduced. The manager of the parking lot revealed to Local10 News in January that the vervet monkeys inhabit close to the airport Park 'N Go, where they hardly cause trouble.

How the Monkeys Acclimatize to Their Environment

The senior author of the study and an anthropologist at Florida Atlantic University, Kate Detwiler said in a statement that the monkeys do rifle sometimes through windows of cars left open, in search of snacks. And that the species can adapt easily.

"Our study's data lays the groundwork for potential studies to look into new questions concerning the population's status and how the monkeys have acclimated to the industrial and urban environment of South Florida," Detwiler said. She added that the right taxonomic identification and history of the Dania Beach monkeys that were introduced is crucial for community outreach and management of wildlife, given the exceptional ability for Chlorocebus to flourish in many environments.

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