But it’s probably not the kind of herpes you’re thinking of.
For non-human primates, including the rhesus monkeys found in Florida, the herpes B virus is relatively harmless, but if a person becomes infected it can be deadly.
For a human to contract the herpes B virus from a monkey, he or she would need to be scratched or bitten by an infected monkey, or come in contact with its bodily fluids, according to the CDC.
From there, the person would start to experience fever, chills, flu-like aches and small blisters at the site of the infection. If it goes untreated, the herpes B virus can travel to the central nervous system, cause swelling of the brain and leave its victim dead.
Fortunately, herpes B infection in humans is extremely rare. Only 31 people have been diagnosed with herpes B since the virus was discovered in 1932, according to the CDC. Of those 31 cases, 21 proved to be fatal.
It was around the time the virus was discovered that rhesus monkeys were brought to Florida as part of the Silver Springs attraction, according to Joy Hill of Florida Fish and Wildlife.
WHERE DID THE MONKEYS COME FROM?
Legend has it that the wild rhesus monkeys living along portions of the Silver and Ocklawaha rivers are descendants of escapees from a Tarzan movie set. While the real story is not nearly as colorful, this story is like its own blockbuster, involving a handful of colorful characters and many intricate plot twists.
The monkeys were actually introduced to Silver Springs in 1938, about the time the Johnny Weissmuller movies were being filmed at the attraction, but they had no connection whatsoever to the movie.
The person responsible was Colonel (yes, that’s his first name) Tooey, a colorful concessionaire WHO had a “Jungle Cruise” tour boat ride made up of paddle boats owned by the Hart Boat Line.
Thinking a live exhibit of monkeys would enhance the earnings of his business, he built an island on the river -- still referred to as “Monkey Island”-- and purchased two pairs of adult monkeys from a carnival in upstate New York, between Syracuse and Rochester. The carnival brought the monkeys down to Florida and released them on the island.
He settled them on the man-made island in the middle of the Silver River with the belief that the water would act as a natural barrier preventing them from swimming away.
Since Mr. Tooey was told that monkeys cannot or would not swim, he believed the monkeys would be isolated on the island. However, Rhesus Monkeys are excellent swimmers and wasted little time saying goodbye to Tooey’s island and hello to the banks of the Silver River.
William “Bill” Ray, son of Walter Carl Ray, one of the operators of the Springs, was just a kid then, but he was there when Tooey released the primates.
“The monkeys,” Ray remembers, “probably didn’t stay on the island ten minutes.”
He says they not only knew how to swim, they flaunted their natural talents by swinging out from the trees and hitting the water with a loud “bam” before swimming off into the forest.
Fortunately for Tooey, the monkeys did not venture far. Instead, they stayed along the shoreline where they could take advantage of the endless supply of food delivered by the operators of Tooey’s cruise boats.
Thus began the saga of the Silver River monkeys and their struggle to survive as an unprotected, non-native species trying to co-exist with humans in an ever-expanding urban environment
When the older monkeys that were first introduced on the island started to die off, Colonel Tooey unwittingly upset the social order of the established troop by introducing a younger group of rhesus monkeys. The result was that the dominant females chased the young males off the island and into the surrounding woods.
In time, the rousted males matured, formed their own troops, and went back to the island to raid away females from the original group. This led to a population explosion. The problem, as the state’s then-called Florida Game & Fresh Water Fish Commission saw it, was getting out of hand.
The monkey troops soon split—one occupying the south side of the Silver River, the other taking the north side. By 1986 a census conducted by Linda Wolf, a University of Florida researcher, showed the total number of monkeys along the river had reached 350.
Back then, Lt. John Moran was lead inspector for the FGFWFC in Ocala (now called the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission.) He informed the new operators of Silver Springs on several occasions that their monkeys were getting away from their park and that his agency had received complaints downriver of people’s sheds being raided, of dog food supplies being pilfered, and of hunters shooting monkeys.
“I kept telling them their monkeys were leaving,” he says, “but they kept saying they weren’t their monkeys.”
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NOW WHAT?
Since the 1930s, the monkeys have bred and populated and can now be found in Brevard, Broward, Lake, Marion and Monroe counties, according to Florida Fish and Wildlife's website.
Hill said it's not uncommon to see the monkeys at Silver Springs, an attraction near Ocala.
Even with the monkeys' relatively friendly attitude, Hill said she's never heard of anyone being bitten and contracting the virus.
However, in 2012 a woman in Tampa was bitten by a herpes-positive rhesus monkey that was roaming around her neighborhood. Because she sought treatment, the 60-year-old woman did not contract the virus, the Tampa Bay Times reports.
Right now, the fate of the rhesus monkeys at Silver Springs is somewhat shaky because the former attraction is shifting ownership and will be officially operated by the state of Florida come Sept. 30. It's unclear if the monkeys will be allowed to remain at Silver Springs or if the populations will be removed.
“It’s controversial in that there are a lot of people who feel that the monkeys should just be out there,” Hill said. “But then, from the perspective of how they impact the environment… they can and will bite people and they do carry that transmittable disease.”
Officials at Silver Springs were unable to provide comment.
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