As planes roared, an elderly monkey lay on a mangrove branch one recent followingnoon near the Fort Lauderdale airport, his ego bruised.
Mikey, as he is known, was always the dominant male in a herd of monkeys that took up residence in a mangrove swamp next to the runways at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. But he had just taken a beating from a younger monkey named Spike. Mikey ran out, screaming, and perched on a branch, from which he stared humiliatedly at the humans 15 feet away.
“Did you have a bad day?” asks Deborah “Missy” Williams, a science professor at Lynn University who has been studying the area’s monkeys since 2014. She is the founder of the Dania Beach Vervet Project, which aims to preserve this unique colony. “We’ll leave you alone so you can think.”
There is no native population of monkeys in the United States, but Vervet monkeys have been on Dania Beach since the late 1940s, descendants of a dozen monkeys that were brought from West Africa to a roadside hatchery and zoo. Today there are regarding 40, divided into four groups that live around the airport. Florida also has some colonies of escaped macaques and squirrel monkeys.
Florida authorities often kill invasive species to protect native wildlife. But Vervet monkeys are tolerated if they don’t cause trouble.
In fact, the monkeys are true celebrities. TV reports and newspaper articles have been devoted to them and they are popular with workers in the area, who give them food despite signs saying it is illegal to do so.
“My friends ask me, ‘Are there monkeys where you work?’” laughed Harlen Caldera, an airport parking attendant, as she fed some little monkeys raisins and nuts. Some eat directly from her hand, while others pick up what she throws on the floor.
Travelers are often surprised to see the critters and immediately pull out their phones to photograph or film them. Vervet monkeys have gray and black fur, with some shades of green, which helps them to go unnoticed in the trees. Males generally measure just over half a meter (two feet) and weigh seven kilos (15 pounds). The females measure half a meter (18 inches) and weigh 4.5 kilos (10 pounds). They live regarding 20 years.
Caldera and her co-workers protect the little monkeys, who are not afraid of humans. They try to make sure that no one tries to catch them or harm them. “You never know what people can do,” she noted.
The entrance to the 15-acre preserve dominated by Mikey, the Snow White matriarch, and her pack occupies the rear of the parking lot, behind a padlocked fence.
The mangroves are thick and the terrain muddy, except where there is a little water.
Williams began studying the monkeys while earning her Ph.D. from Florida Atlantic University and stayed in the area following completing her studies. As she and some friends of hers wandered into monkey territory one recent followingnoon, the herd of 16 animals approached them. The monkeys feed on spiders, ants, lizards, seeds and flowers, in addition to the food that people give them.
“They quickly adapt to a human diet. They love sweet and salty things,” Williams said, adding that they tolerate human food very well.
In Africa, Vervet monkeys are preyed upon by leopards, eagles, and vipers. But in Florida, danger lurks outside the mangrove swamp and is represented by cars and hunters, who sell them as pets.
Because it is a very small population, Williams fears that inbreeding (between animals of the same family) harms their health. In Africa, male monkeys leave the herd in which they were born when they reach sexual maturity, at the age of five, and join another herd. They change herd once more following a few years. Since there are only four groups in this area, there is not enough male turnover and the gene pool is small.
Because the little monkeys are an invasive species, numerous restrictions are placed on the kind of help Williams’ group can offer them. Animals that are hunted cannot be released. They are either slaughtered or placed in captivity.
Williams believes that little monkeys cannot be pets and therefore do not go to the vets when there are serious injuries or illnesses. He trusts nature to heal them. But his group is building a gated site for vervet monkeys who are captured or have ventured too far from their area.
Williams wants the state to allow the release of captured Vervet monkeys. He maintains that, unlike Burmese pythons, iguanas and other invasive species, the monkeys do not harm the environment.
“The lives of the monkeys matter whether or not they are native to the area,” he said. “You would have to exhaust all instances before sacrificing them.”
His studies indicate that, if there are no changes, the colony will disappear in 50 years.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said the colony can remain where it is, but cannot allow the release of the captured monkeys because their impact on the ecosystem is “unclear.”
“There is also the risk of injuries when dealing with wild animals. Monkeys can become defensive and bite or scratch someone. Mammals, including Vervet monkeys, can carry diseases transmissible to humans, including rabies,” says a statement.
As night fell, the herd moved from the mangroves to the airport parking lot. It is dinner time and there are seeds and people who feed them. Some played with each other or licked each other. Spike and Mikey got into another fight before Williams intervened and separated them. The old king and his heir apparent sat a short distance away, eyeing each other suspiciously.
Shortly followingwards the little monkeys returned to the trees to spend the night there, unperturbed by the din of the metal birds flying above them.