Alligators in the kitchen? We’re used to it. Shark attacks? No problem. 17-foot Burmese python? Big deal.

Wild monkeys scampering over your roof and walking through your neighborhood? Some Floridians are coming to terms with it, especially during recent sightings in Central Florida’s Groveland and Clermont shared on social media.

“I was picking up my daughter from school at South Lake High School in Groveland and then I saw this animal walking in the sidewalk,” caterer Naxel Miranda of Miranda’s Kitchen told The Daily Commercial. “I thought was a cat or something like that because I’m not used to seeing monkeys in Florida, but when I get closer was a monkey and that’s when I took my phone out and start recording the video.”

Florida residents have seen the primates monkeying around for years. One wild monkey captivated locals as it roamed around Orange City for weeks last August. Monkey sightings popped up in St. Johns, Putnam and Duval counties in 2020. Several of them charged a family at Silver Springs State Park in 2017. There have been 236 reports of them since 1959, with most of them between 2007 and November 2023, according to Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) reports and tracking by the University of Georgia.

The creatures are likely rhesus macaque monkeys, primate expert Linda Wasko, president of Primate Paradise in Osteen, told FOX 35, possibly descendants of the first six brought to Florida by a man hoping to jazz up his jungle boat tour in the 1930s.

What are rhesus macaque monkeys?

Rhesus macaque monkeys are one of two monkey species that have been established and are reproducing in Florida, the other being vervet monkeys.

They are native to Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Southeast Asia and China, but were introduced to Florida by a cruise operator named Colonel Tooey, according to a post by the Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Department, UF/IFAS Extension. He let them loose on a small island in the Silver River, but rhesus macaque monkeys are very good swimmers and struck out on their own almost immediately. Since then the monkey population in the area has increased dramatically.

Nearly 1,400 rhesus macaques were brought to the Florida Keys by a laboratory animal breeding company in the 1970s but they were ordered removed in 1997 after they destroyed 30 acres of mangroves. A third set of them were brought in by an amusement park called Tropical Wonderland in Titusville and they either escaped or were released when the park closed in 1976. The FWC planned to trap the 35-75 monkeys reported roaming the area but it is unclear how effective this was.

Rhesus macaque population growth in Florida was reduced from 1984 to 2012 when about 1,000 monkeys were trapped and removed, but this became controversial due to the monkeys being killed or given to testing facilities and was halted.

Adults are brown to gray with pink faces, the FWC said, and mostly herbivorous although they will eat insects and bird eggs. Males can roam for miles.

Are rhesus macaque monkeys dangerous?

Monkeys that have been fed can become territorial and more aggressive.

Wild animals also can carry diseases that can be fatal to humans such as rabies, hepatitis B and B herpes, officials from the FWC and the Centers for Disease Prevention (CDC) said.

“B virus infection is extremely rare, but it can lead to severe brain damage or death if you do not get treatment immediately,” the Centers for Disease Prevention (CDC) said. “People typically get infected with B virus if they are bitten or scratched by an infected macaque monkey, or have contact with the monkey’s eyes, nose, or mouth.”

If you are bitten or scratched by a wild monkey, immediately wash the wound and seek medical attention according to CDC guidelines.

More monkeys coming? Panhandle residents worry about nearby facility that would breed, house up to 30,000 monkeys

Can I feed wild monkeys?

Feeding wild monkeys is a second-degree misdemeanor in Florida that can carry up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine if convicted, according to a 2018 prohibition from the FWC.

The FWC advises residents to avoid them when spotted and do not offer food. Keep pets on a leash and watch small children, and dispose of uneaten food and garbage in closed trash containers.

“The biggest message we’d like residents to heed is that it could be very dangerous,” Orange City police Lt. Sherif El-Shami said in 2023. “Don’t feed it. Don’t pet it. It’s not your average animal at the zoo.”

What should I do if I see a rhesus macaque monkey?

Wild monkeys are common enough in some areas that the FWC asks that you report them only if you see them outside their core population area in Marion County. To report a monkey sighting:

• Try to take a picture or video
• Note the location
• Call the FWC’s Exotic Species Hotline at 888-IveGot1 (888-483-4681).

If you see a wild monkey posing an imminent threat to humans, call 911 or the FWC’s Wildlife Alert Hotline at 888-404FWCC (888-404-3922).

Heritage Insurance Holdings Inc. (HRTG) on Wednesday reported earnings of $14.2 million in its first quarter of this year, about the same as earnings for Q1 of 2023, but down from the $31 million in net income reported for the fourth quarter of 2023.

The Tampa-based property and casualty insurance holding company is the parent company of Heritage Insurance, Narragansett Bay Insurance and Zephyr Insurance. The holding firm posted revenue of $191.3 million in Q1, up 8% from the first quarter last year, thanks in part to reduced exposure and to significant rate increases.

The firm’s combined ratio was 94% for Q1, a slight improvement over last year’s quarterly number, the company’s financial statements show.

The black ink reflects a significant improvement from the Heritage financial picture in 2021 and 2022, at the depths of what has been called the Florida property insurance crisis. At the end of Q1 2022, Heritage holdings reported a $31 million net loss.

Since then, a number of Florida insurers have seen a significant reduction in litigation expenses, a key metric behind the crisis. And Heritage has continued to reduce its exposure in Florida and other states. Heritage held 182,673 policies in Florida at the end of 2022 and 529,907 policies in all 17 states in which its subsidiaries write. By the end of the first quarter this year, the number of Florida policies had dropped to 147,9654. In all 17 states, policies in force fell to 436,955 — a drop of almost 18% in less than 18 months.

But the cutbacks were not across the board. Heritage said in a news release that it had increased its commercial residential premium significantly.

“As part of our exposure management strategy, we continue to grow our policy count in products and geographies which are profitable and reduce our policy count in unprofitable and over concentrated areas,” the release noted.

“The management team is resolute in our focus to generate underwriting profits across our footprint, maintain adequate rates, ensure selective underwriting, and employ meticulous but fair claims handling,” CEO Ernie Garateix said in a statement.

4,800 Heritage Irma Claims Handled by Unlicensed Adjusters, Lawsuit Charges

Topics
Florida
Profit Loss

The governor’s office estimates Florida could eventually save nearly a billion dollars through help provided by the Hope Florida program.

Hope Florida has been around for three years after it was spearheaded by Florida first lady Casey DeSantis, who wanted to improve connections between people and aid outside of government.

She was helping bag groceries Thursday to highlight how the program works.

“I always say you can have the best resources, you can have the best programs, but if you don’t know that they’re there, what good are they?” DeSantis told us during a one-on-one interview.

The first lady officially launched Hope Florida in 2021 after it ran as a pilot program in a few key spots around the state. It was conceived as a better way to connect those in need with the private sector, nonprofits, and especially faith groups.

Hope Florida acts as a conduit to ensure aid in an area gets to where it’s needed most. Organizers say it eases the burden on Florida’s welfare programs.

“It’s helping people find a better place in life,” DeSantis said. “Helping them live up to their God-given potential, helping them on a pathway to economic self-sufficiency.”

Since starting in 2020 as a pilot, Hope Florida reports it’s helped more than 87,000 Floridians. Over 25,000 of them have cut down or eliminated their use of public aid for food or cash. In 10 years, the state said that’ll equal a Florida savings of nearly $795,000,000.

At Hope Florida’s core is its Hope Navigators like Kirsten Lovett.

“We are someone that actually gives people hope,” she said.

When requests come, Lovett acts sort of like a social worker who helps determine the needs of a person or family. She enters it all into a website, the CarePortal.

From there, charities and churches enrolled with Hope Florida are alerted. If they think they can help with food, furniture or whatever the need might be, they say so. Navigators like Lovett then coordinate.

“A lot of times families hear no — that denial kind of discourages them,” she said. “What we do is make those calls for them. When we call them back— all they hear is yes.”

It was City Church in Tallahassee on Thursday that said yes. And Pastor Dean Inserra said Hope Florida is helping his church say it a lot more.

“It’s real easy to know that there are needs in the big picture, generically,” Inserra said. “But it can be so big you feel like you can’t make a difference by taking the next step. CarePortal allows us to have a clear next step and say here are real people, with real problems, that are right next door.”

Right next door, or even down the road in Quincy, where one family we met with, got the care it needed. That, and a little more hope, thanks in part to Hope Florida.

“If you are looking for hope, Hope Florida is a place to start, and it’s 850-300-HOPE,” DeSantis said.

Scripps Only Content 2024