- St. Louis residents spot monkeys roaming streets.
- Wild primates wander Missouri neighborhoods this week.
- Bizarre sighting shocks locals in urban area.
On Friday, locals in north St. Louis reported seeing a few monkeys.
“The Department of Health has confirmed that multiple monkeys are on the loose around the vicinity of O’Fallon Park in North City. Original reports suggested there were four animals, but we cannot confirm an actual number at this time, only that there is more than one,”
Justen Hauser, environmental health bureau chief with the St Louis department of health, said in a statement.
“We are working to get an idea of where they may be
hiding or seeking food. We are engaging with partner agencies that are properly
trained and equipped to safely capture these animals. Once captured, the
monkeys will be transported to a facility certified to care for exotic
animals.”
"This is the first time we've had a situation
dealing with monkeys at large in the city of St. Louis,"
Hauser said to a local news station.
The origin of the monkeys is still unknown, but the St. Louis zoo has determined that they are vervet monkeys.
According to the group, vervets are frequently considered pests in human-populated regions because they invade fields and steal food, which results in a large annual massacre of the creatures.
According to a report in Earth.org that chronicled the story of a vervet named Gizmo who was sold after being "torn from his mother, likely at a few weeks old," they are also sold for profit in the US. Gizmo was raised as a pet in the US and was progressively kept in a cage as he grew more aggressive.
Later on, he would attack an adult after slipping out of the enclosure. After realizing that the animal shouldn't be confined in a cage, Gizmo's owner, who wasn't named in the narrative, contacted the Born Free USA Primate Sanctuary. After that, the monkey was moved to a south Texas sanctuary.
“They are very intelligent and social, but may be unpredictable or aggressive under stress. If you spot them, please call 314-657-1500 so that we can try to triangulate their location,”
he said.
What species are vervet monkeys and are they dangerous to people?
Vervet monkeys( Chlorocebus pygerythrus) belong to the Old World monkey family Cercopithecidae, native to eastern and southern Africa from South Africa to Ethiopia. Medium- sized primates( 4- 8 kg, 40- 60 cm body length), they feature distinctive turquoise scrotums in males, black faces framed by white fur, and slate-black fleeces, inhabiting downs, woods, and civic circumferences.
Largely social, they live in maternal colors of 10- 70, using over 30 distinct alarm calls for bloodsuckers like leopards, eagles, snakes, and humans.
Opportunistic pets, vervets raid crops and scavenge near agreements, earning pest status despite" Least Concern" IUCN bracket. Their intelligence aids mortal- conterminous survival but energies conflict.