You Probably Shouldn't Be Worried About This Colony of Herpes-Infected Monkeys in Florida. Still, there's a colony of herpes-infected monkeys in Florida.

FLORIDA -- Imagine picnicking in central Florida when, suddenly, you hear some leaves rattle, and, from the shade of the trees, the curious face of a rhesus macaque emerges.

The macaques, which were introduced to Florida decades ago by a boat operator, have taken up residence in the state with determination, expanding rapidly because they lack natural predators.

But they are mostly benign, and this one seems pretty benign too. So, what should you do? Offer it food? Try to pet it? Or just ignore it?

You can probably guess the right answer, even if, for decades now, other humans have been guessing wrong, leading to 31 attacks from 1977-1984, according to an official report.

And while most of those injuries turned out to be minor, nowadays you might not be so lucky, as officials warn the public about a more dangerous threat: a strand of herpes carried by the rhesus macaques that is mostly harmless to them but can be deadly to humans.

No such fatal case has yet occurred, but the panic has encouraged the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) to declare the monkeys a public health threat, and recommend that humans avoid contact with them.

Which means that if you do see a monkey come upon your picnic, you’d be best served observing it from afar. Do you really want to die by way of monkey herpes? No. No, you do not.

What kind of herpes are we talking about?

The particular strand of herpes carried by the rhesus macaque is called Macacine herpesvirus 1, and is comparable to the human strain of herpes that causes cold sores, according to Dr. Jim Wellehan, an assistant professor at the Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences at the University of Florida.

And while most primates carry some kind of herpes, a strand of herpes that’s benign in one species can prove deadly in another.

That’s because over millions of years of evolution, herpesviruses have diverged with their hosts, but not other species, meaning that while Macacine herpesvirus 1 might only give rhesus macaques a cold sore, a human is much, much more vulnerable, as over half of documented cases of human infection have ended in death.

Still, don’t blame the rhesus macaques.

The only reason they are in Florida, in fact, turns out to be perfectly Floridian.

HISTORY OF THE SILVER SPRINGS MONKEYS

Native to south and central Asia, six of the macaques were transported to the state in 1938 by an entrepreneur named Colonel Tooey (real first name) who put them on an island in Silver Springs State Park.

Tooey’s plan, such as it was, was for a type of amusement park, selling tourists tickets to his Jungle Cruise Ride, which promised to pass by the incredible “monkey island,” where he’d introduced the macaques.

The plan, for a time, worked, but while an influx of tourists rushed in to see the monkeys in action, the animals themselves began their escape.

 

They first swam across the river, and rumors soon began to circulate about a wild pack of rhesus macaques roaming free.

Meanwhile, some people claimed that they had been stars in a Tarzan movie (a rumor that continues to be spread). Others, that they were reproducing at a fast rate, and that there were now thousands and thousands of them in the area.

The truth was far less dramatic, but the reality is that, without natural predators, the rhesus macaques were here to stay, expanding in Central Florida, even reaching cities as far as the Gulf of Mexico.

And for years, the FWC has considered many solutions, including extermination, relocation, and population control, but nothing, so far, has proven effective.

Plans of complete extermination, for example, were thwarted in the ’90s by animal rights protesters, and attempts at sterilization have proved impractical.

More desperately, the state has even issued permits for catching and selling the monkeys, though this approach has also been criticized since most captured individuals end up in research facilities for life. (The FWC did not respond to a request for comment.)

While the thought of dying because a monkey gave you herpes is terrifying, the rhesus macaques might feel the same way about you. In fact, there are more recorded cases of humans infecting their pet monkeys with human herpes viruses than vice versa.

But as of now, the humans and monkeys remain in an uncomfortable stalemate. And while most human interactions with the monkeys continue to be benign, do yourself a favor and leave them alone if you see them out in the wild.

Macaques’ first instinct is not to attack a primate several times its size, but they will if they feel cornered or threatened. And, as Wellehan explains, herpes can only be transmitted by close contact where fluids are exchanged.

(Atlas Obscura - Nov 10, 2016)

Earlier:

• Florida: Herpes-positive monkeys reported in Florida

Florida: Herpes-positive monkeys reported in Florida

FLORIDA -- Reports of herpes-infested monkeys gliding through Florida’s trees were circulated around the web last week, and oddly enough, the reports are true.

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.”

Rhesus Monkey

The owners, Moran said, took the position that when they purchased the park from the previous owners—and while that sale included Tooey’s jungle cruise boats—the concessionaire’s monkeys weren’t part of the deal. Moran says the park owners doggedly stuck to this position for nearly ten years.

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.

“They [the monkeys] have approached people, because unfortunately, people throw them food," Hill said. "Anytime you have wild animals that begin to associate people with food, you have the likelihood that someone will be bitten or injured.”

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.

(Orlando Sentinel - Sept 17, 2013)

Read more:

• Issues and Options Related to Management Of Silver Springs Rhesus Macaques. January 1994. Technical Report #49. Completed for the Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission