Monkey on the lam in Clearwater

CLEARWATER -- The search is over, at least for the moment, for the rhesus macaque running through Clearwater.

Officials are waiting for a tip from the public before they resume the search for the monkey, last seen Tuesday night at a strip mall.

“If I knew he was staying in that complex, we would probably go in with 12 traps and bait him,” said Vernon Yates, a trapper working with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. “I’ve got a sneaking feeling he’s already left and gone somewhere else.”

If you see the monkey, you can call the FWC wildlife hotline: 1-888-404-3922.

Yates said that when the call first came in Tuesday about 1:30 p.m., he was told it was a baboon. But when he arrived at the strip mall on the north side of Gulf-to-Bay Boulevard and the east side of U.S. 19, he saw a picture taken by a bystander. The photo looked like a macaque.

Yates spent the rest of the day in the shopping center and office complex, but the creature was elusive in the 60-foot-tall oak trees.

Authorities believe he is an unlicensed, escaped monkey and can be dangerous if cornered.

Yates said he guessed that Dumpster diving attracted the monkey to the complex on the northeast quadrant of U.S. 19 and Gulf-to-Bay. The strip mall has two Mexican restaurants, a seafood restaurant and a Chinese fast-food chain.

Yates said the monkey was “very streetwise” and seemed to know how to avoid people.

They were not able to shoot the monkey Tuesday with a dart gun because the darts could be deflected by the leaves on the trees.

"If you see the monkey, you should stay away from it," Gary Morse, spokesman for the FWC, said this morning. "When a monkey is on the loose, it's not the most pleasant thing."

The monkey could carry hepatitis, Morse said. And that’s not the only reason to stay away.

"Monkeys' social behavior can be pretty lewd,'' Morse said. "They’re infamous for throwing feces at things they don’t like.''

FWC officers tried to trap the monkey Tuesday afternoon with a bucket truck and a dart gun.

"The wind was too much,'' Morse said. "It fled.''

The monkey is an adult male thought to have escaped from an unlicensed source."There is no one in the area licensed to have a rhesus macaque," he said. "So where this one came from is up to speculation."

The rhesus macaque species is known for swinging around Silver Springs, as well as for its role in medical research. As far as monkeys go, the rhesus fall in the medium range, about the size of a small child, Morse said.

Unlike the patas monkeys that escaped in April from former Lowry Park Zoo executive Lex Salisbury's Safari Wild property in Polk County, rhesus monkeys are less terrestrial, Morse said.

"They hang out in trees," he said. "They are very powerful."

Jonathan Abel and Kameel Stanley, Times Staff Writers

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Comments

[Mark T]

The birth of the planet of the apes.

[Stubby]

“They’re infamous for throwing feces at things they don’t like.”
HMMM! lets take him to a school board meeting!

[gatorted]

JEB, '10!!
JEB, '10!!!
JEB, '10!!!!

[wag11c]

might start looking in the Greenwood area, I think I saw him selling crack.