Resident spots squirrel monkey in Pelican Bay

By MATT CLARK
Posted April 19, 2010 at 4:04 p.m.

NAPLES — Be on the lookout for the monkey in Pelican Bay.

He may be furry, fluffy and friendly, but he also may be harboring diseases that could cause serious illness or death to humans.

DeeDee Ream may have been the first to spot him. It was Saturday, dinner was being prepared and Ream heard a strange noise coming from the backyard. She went to investigate, noticed a cardinal, then scanned the treeline.

“It’s a monkey,” Ream yelled to her friends gathered in the home.

The squirrel monkey, a non-native species with a history in Naples, was clinging to a palm tree.

For years, several of the monkeys — possibly a troop — have been spotted in and around the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, including at Naples High School and the Collier Athletic Club.

“Typically they do occupy a certain territory,” said Troy Frensley, Conservancy education director.

“It makes me suspect that potentially it was a pet,” Frensley said of the monkey Ream saw. “No one knows how the ones we’ve seen around the Conservancy arrived.”

Squirrel monkeys aren’t stupid. Their brains are larger than humans, relative to their small body sizes. They were even the first U.S. astronauts.

If the monkey’s goal was to get Ream’s attention, it succeeded with aplomb. Or an apple.

After spotting the monkey and thinking it may have been someone’s lost pet, Ream went in to find some fruit.

“I know what its like when your pet goes missing,” Ream, a seasonal resident from Cleveland, said. “I thought he was somebody’s pet.”

Ream later called the Conservancy and realized her error. The monkey moved on to forage from a palm tree shortly after.

“He used us and then he left. ‘These apples are nice ladies, but I’m on to the palm tree,’” Ream said.

If the monkey is spotted, Frensley suggested calling the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission for more information on how to handle the situation. The commission’s website says squirrel monkeys have been breeding in Brevard, Broward and Marion counties since as early as the 1950s and have been spotted in Collier, Dade and Polk counties since at least the 1960s.

“Some of these free-ranging monkeys were released as tourist attractions to an area,” the site said. “Other groups of this species might exist in areas of Florida besides those listed here.”

For more than a year, the FWC has been trying to trap a rhesus macaque monkey in the Tampa Bay area. According to the trapper hunting the animal, the monkey checks traffic before crossing the street, avoids power lines and escapes even after being shot with a tranquilizer dart on more than one occasion.

The Tampa Bay monkey has been featured on national television programs, and its elusive nature has captivated many, some of whom describe it as a hero. It even has a Facebook page. The commission is committed to catching it, though, saying it could be harboring diseases such as herpes or hepatitis.

“That animal is so much quicker and more powerful than people perceive,” said commission spokesman Gary Morse. “That monkey would absolutely tear an adult male up. People have no idea how fierce their bites would be.”

http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2010/apr/19/resident-spots-squirrel-monkey-pelican-bay/