‘Airport monkeys’ linked to 1948 zoo escape.
A colony of monkeys, which has lived for about 70 years in a forest close to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, has been traced back to a zoo escape in 1948.
A number of African green monkeys reportedly escaped from Dania Chimpanzee Farm in more than 70 years ago.
Most of them were recaptured, however, some disappeared into a mangrove swamp beside Fort Lauderdale airport.
After living for decades near fuel storage tanks and watching jets take off from the nearby runway, researchers at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) say they have traced the colony’s origins to the farm.
The FAU team said the colony currently numbers about 41.
“Through interviews, historical archives, and popular media, we traced the monkeys to an escape from the Dania Chimpanzee Farm in 1948,” wrote the authors of the new study published in the journal Primates.
“The facility imported primates from Africa for medical research purposes.”
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