The Orange City Police Department is telling people in that eastern Florida city to not approach or feed wild monkeys spotted there in recent days.
The police didn’t specify what species of monkey were seen in Orange City in their warning on Facebook this week, though they did post a picture of monkeys on a white fence there.
Florida hosts nonnative wild populations of rhesus macaques, vervet monkeys and squirrel monkeys, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Feeding the monkeys has been illegal since 2018, and FWC says the animals pose a risk of spreading infections such as herpes B via bites and scratches.
Monkeys have also been spotted in other Volusia County communities, including Deltona and DeBary, according to The Daytona Beach News-Journal.
St. John’s River Eco Tours, based in DeBary, posted a video of one such sighting on Facebook this month.
“I looked up into a tree and kind of went, ’What’s that!?’ I got a little bit closer and realized that I had a monkey probably about 30 feet from me. And trust me, that’s not something you see out here on a regular basis whatsoever, so I was shocked,” Colin Innes, who took the video, told Orlando CBS affiliate WKMG-TV.
Mr. Innes’ hypothesis is that the monkey wandered from its typical haunt in Ocala National Forest or Silver Springs State Park.
