Officials set a trap Thursday to catch a monkey suspected of stealing fruit from an elderly woman in northeast Gainesville.
Schoolchildren and teachers at Charles W. Duval Elementary School spotted the patas monkey Tuesday, and neighbors called in sightings of the fleeing primate.
Neighbors saw the monkey take kumquats and tangerines from a tree in the elderly woman’s yard, said Karen Parker, spokeswoman for Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Gainesville police set up a perimeter for the animal Thursday afternoon, and conservation officers set up a cage trap, Parker said.
She said officials do not know where the monkey came from, noting it was possibly an “escapee” from a Gainesville facility.
The monkey is “not showing any type of aggression tendencies,” she said. “But we still don’t want him running around.”
The main concern is for the animal’s safety, she said, but she added that monkeys can bite.
Patas monkeys are nonaggressive primates known to be able to run 30 mph, earning them the nickname the “greyhounds of the monkey world,” Parker said.
While officials are not sure where the monkey came from, Santa Fe College Teaching Zoo Director Jonathan Miot said the primate is not from the zoo.
“It is not ours,” he said. “We don’t have patas monkeys.”
He said the zoo counts every animal three times a day to check for escapes.
Conservation officials filled the 6-by-3-foot cage with bananas, pineapples, watermelons and blueberries and are waiting for the monkey to take the bait, Parker said.
She said the trap contains a trash can with the fruit inside.
If the monkey disturbs the can, it will trigger the trap, and the cage will close.
Once caught, the monkey will be taken to a secure location where it will be cared for.
Parker said she was not sure which Gainesville facility was preparing to take the monkey.
“We’re hoping our fruit will be more tempting than the fruit in the trees,” she said.
In 2010, a rhesus macaque scampered across various Tampa neighborhoods and eluded capture for years, earning the nickname “Mystery Monkey,” according to the Tampa Bay Times. It is currently at large.
Contact Meredith Rutland at mrutland@alligator.org.
