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VIDEO: The non-native vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus sabaeus) have adapted to the urban and industrial environment of South Florida and have thrived there for more than 70 years.
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Credit: Deborah "Missy " Williams, Ph.D.
Robust data and genetic research are providing important evidence on a colony of wild African vervet monkeys that landed in Dania Beach more than 70 years ago and settled in a thick mangrove forest near the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in South Florida.
The non-native vervet monkey (Chlorocebus sabaeus) population living in this urban coastal region is well known and beloved among local residents and city officials; however, it is relatively unknown to primatologists. Despite wide public interest, there has been only one scientific study (early 1990s), suggesting that the monkeys escaped from a failed roadside zoo in the 1950s and 1970s. Until now, there was no confirmation about the species' identification, geographic origins, or introduction history.