Wild monkeys invaded Florida. Should people protect them?

Wild monkeys invaded Florida. Should people protect them? 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Without intervention, the vervets of Dania Beach could go extinct within the next century Vervet monkeys play on top of a car at an airport park-and-fly near Dania Beach, Fla. Rebecca Blackwell/AP Photo By Freda Kreier March 16, 2026 at 9:00 am Share this:Share Share via email (Opens in new window) Email Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook Share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit Share on X (Opens in new window) X Print (Opens in new window) Print Listen to this article This is a human-written story voiced by AI. Got feedback? Take our survey . (See our AI policy here .) It was a typical Florida story. In January 2014, Missy Williams stood at the edge of a park-and-fly in Dania Beach near Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. She watched the boundary where a chain-link fence stood between a strip of mangroves and the parking lot. Williams waited. Less than 20 minutes later, she saw them: wild African vervet monkeys climbing the fence. “I was just in a state of awe,” Williams recalls. “I couldn’t believe it was really happening.” Sign up for our newsletter We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday. Then a graduate student at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Williams had been preparing to travel to Gombe National Park in Tanzania to study wild monkeys. But as the mother of a young boy, Williams was finding balancing foreign fieldwork and childcare difficult. Then, a Miami local mentioned that there might be wild primates closer at hand. That conversation led Williams to the airport, and her chance meeting in the parking lot sparked a love affair — one that has made her the number one advocate for one of South Florida’s best kept secrets. No primates, aside from humans, are native to the United States. But at least 10 species of primates have been introduced to the country since 1930. In Florida, three species of monkeys have established breeding populations. Among them are the Dania Beach colony, a small population of vervet monkeys that has lived in and around the city’s mangrove forest for nearly 80 years. “It’s pretty cool to have wild monkeys in your backyard.” Kyle JonesBrewery Operations Manager Despite their nonnative status, this colony is beloved by some Dania Beach residents. They are fed by office workers, mentioned in megachurch sermons and are even mascots for local beers. But their continued survival is threatened. Monkeys are frequently run over by cars, electrocuted or simply disappear — potential victims of the illegal exotic pet trade. And according to Williams’ research, the Dania Beach colony will likely go extinct within the next century. Some local residents, including Williams, are now advocating for the colony to be protected. These wishes run counter to federal and state policies, which aim to remove or manage nonnative species of concern. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission considers the Dania Beach vervets an invasive species because of their potential to have negative impacts on native wildlife, ecosystems and agriculture. “Nonnative species do not belong in Florida’s environment,” Commission spokesperson Lisa Thompson said to Science News in an emailed statement. Some invasive species researchers are also dubious about proposed protections for the monkeys. “People probably feel drawn to primates because they’re cute and fuzzy,” says wildlife ecologist Steve Johnson of the University of Florida, Gainesville. But monkeys and other introduced species, he says, “will never be native to Florida.” Whether these vervets survive largely depends on how they are perceived. Are they valued Dania Beach residents? Or are they a nonnative threat that should be allowed