h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

FYI: while Republicans meet in Florida, wildlife people are keeping an eye on the local monkeys. Especially one.

Apparently, there's a rhesus macaque that's a folk hero in Tampa. He's eluded the wildlife authorities for more than 3 years. And he's a political symbol: his ability to avoid capture and outwit the nature cops reminds those liberty-loving Floridians of their feelings about freedom, independence, and their distaste for government. They regularly feed the monkey and misdirect the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, so the report goes. They wear t-shirts that say, 'Go, monkey, go!'

Of course, as you and I and Willem know, it isn't that simple. Why isn't this little guy with his friends and family in one of the Silver River macaque colonies? Yes, we KNOW it's an Asian monkey. Some...er, intelligent person, back in the 1930s, fellow with the unlikely first name of 'Colonel', set some monkeys free. Yeah, that's an old story. The monkeys were much smarter than Colonel Tooey. So what else is new? He didn't know they could swim off that island? Sheesh.

Monkeys should be with monkeys, not lonely and scrounging meals behind restaurants, even if the citrus there grows on trees. There's a nice trapper fellow (think Taggart in 'Eureka') who's already got 17 rescued tigers and a ballet of tortoises, and has lined up a nice gf for our guy. But no, he's gotta be a symbol for somebody's idea of freedom.

Oh, and these are the people whose governor won't forbid people from packing firearms in front of the Convention Center. We refuse to comment about Republicans, guns, what the Second Amendment does or does not say, and the irony of it all, as we feel we're already in enough hot water with FloridaSailor.

I really recommend this brilliantly-written and thoughtful piece by Jon Mooallem in the New York Times Magazine:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/26/magazine/tampa-monkey.html?_r=1&WT.mc_id=NYT-MAG-E-EXT-MAG-YAH-0822-L2&nl=el&pagewanted=all

And Willem, we want to know what you think about the monkeys of Silver River, Florida.

In the meantime, those candidates should be on the lookout for a photo op. That monkey's Facebook page has 82,000 'likes'.

Since you're probably more interested in wild monkeys than feral politicians, here's a site with more info about Silver River and its wildlife:

http://www.wildlifesouth.com/Locations/Florida/SilverRiver.html

Hi Dmitri, I'll have to do a bit of reading first before I could make a sensible comment! It seems overall that Florida has a huge problem with all sorts of introduced creatures.

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/08/13/us/florida-largest-python/index.html

I'd settle for a monkey

Big snake.

Yes, Willem, you're right - it's tropical, and there are a lot of invasive species.

For instance, an office plant that's harmless in someplace like Philadelphia, the asparagus fern, grows through buildings in Florida.

(I instantly thought of the burmese python myself, prof, having just edited a few lines about it and it's by now huge family, whose members are capable of eating almost everything in the Everglades, gators included )

Now back to the monkey at hand - or not as it were

Most of Florida's problems with introduced creatures started soon after 1492

our problems started as soon as they introduced humans

"In the beginning, the universe was created. This made a lot of people very angry, and has been widely regarded as a bad idea."

Douglas Adams

One thing they introduced, way back, was the walking catfish. It's been slowly migrating northward. This is a seriously creepy crittur.

Not to mention the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus:

http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/

Yeah, that thing's a menace.

OK, pacific octopi aside, the big exotic problem animals in southern Florida seem to be pythons, iguanas, wild pigs, cats and rats. Monkeys not so bad it would seem. And everything's better with them. Not always actually! Well anyways we'll have to see how things pan out ... a different kind of ecology might very well arise, as some of the newcomers prove impossible to eradicate and a new kind of balance emerges.

Well, better than the nutria in Louisiana, I expect.

Now now Dmitri I'm mostly harmless. Although I do reserve the right to reply, I like and respect you most of the time. Please don't mess with my monkey! Although he wanders quite close the where I sit I have not seen him other than the occasional news footage. The story I heard was that the monkeys at Silver Springs were originally brought in for the Tarzan movies filmed there in the 1930's (Johnny Wiessmuller era). One of the big attractions in Miami (a good six hour drive from here) is the Monkey Jungle, where the people walk through in cage tunnels while the monkeys run free.

Willem, the wild hogs go back to the early Spanish settlements. They can be mean.

Some of the most damaging introductions have been plants, such as water hyacinth, Brazilian Pepper trees and Kudzu (thankfully the last has not moved this far south yet).

The one introduced species most disruptive for the average Floridian is the "Love Bug". First introduced in the mid 1970s in the belief they would eat the mosquito larvae, they emerge twice a year in a mating frenzy. During this period they "fly united" hence the name.
Having no natural enemies, except the automobile, their population has exploded! Driving for more than a few hours outside urban areas requires cleaning windscreens and radiator grills. They are also quite corrosive to paint when splattered. They are, apparently, drawn to the smell of exhaust fumes.

FS

Florida has way too many bugs. I'm a-scairt of that place.

And I say this as a Southerner who knows what a kudzu-covered house looks like.

Around here, muntjac deer are a problem - and rhododendrons!

Scotch broom, pampas grass and blackberries, here.

it's Chavs here, although the locals call them Scallies

dog muck on pavements (real menace at night)council cutbacks = no dog wardens etc

When I first became a conservation volunteer, I was told to keep an eye out for the wooden enemies. I thought this was some invasive tree species, until I realised they were saying 'wood anemones'.