There has been some monkeying around in one central Florida county, causing people to capture the rare occurrences on camera and call police.
Reported primate sightings from last week came from Groveland, and days later, neighbors in Clermont said they were spotting the wild animals as well.
"I was picking up my daughter at school, and then I saw [what] I thought was a cat. When I got closer, I saw it was a monkey," Maxel Miranda told FOX 35 Orlando. His footage shows a monkey walking on all fours behind South Lake High School.
Another resident-captured video shows a monkey walking on the roof of a home on April 30.
"This monkey went across the road, and I had to do a double take because I didn’t think that I was actually a monkey," Aime Krug told FOX 35. She says she saw the monkey while she was driving home from work.
Clermont police confirmed to the TV station that they received one monkey sighting report on Sunday, and a second on Tuesday.
Primate expert Linda Wasko of Primate Paradise in Osteen, Florida, identified the Groveland monkey as a rhesus macaque. She told FOX 35 the monkeys may have migrated from the Wekiva River area, possibly originating from a group that came from Silver Springs in the 1930s.
Macaques have an omnivorous diet, feeding on lizards, frogs and birds. They generally avoid contact with humans, and Wasko says they typically stick with their troops.
Wasko recommends anyone who encounters a macaque to report it to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC).
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"We can’t believe it! We have raccoons, and we have squirrels and stuff in our attic from time to time, but we’ve never seen a monkey, so that’s absolutely crazy," homeowner Simon Weafer told FOX 35. "We will definitely be a bit cautious when we go out into the yard now."
