Monkeys in Florida: The Silver Springs Rhesus Macaques

Yes, there are wild monkeys in Florida, and the ones people actually see live along the Silver River at Silver Springs State Park, eight miles east of Ocala. They are rhesus macaques, a species native to India and southern Asia, and roughly 200 of them hold the riverbanks between the headspring and the Ocklawaha River. Several hundred more have spread out across central Florida since the 1970s.

They are not a zoo exhibit and not an accident of a hurricane. A tour boat operator put them there on purpose in the 1930s, and the park has been living with the consequences ever since. This guide explains how the monkeys got here, how many there are, where and how to see them safely, what the herpes B headlines actually mean, and what the state is and is not doing about them.

The short version

Why there are monkeys at Silver Springs

In the late 1930s Silver Springs was one of the biggest tourist draws in the South, with glass-bottom boats gliding over the spring vents and jungle cruises running down the Silver River. A boat operator known as Colonel Tooey wanted something exotic for his cruise, so he bought a small group of rhesus macaques, about six animals, and released them on an island in the river.

Rhesus macaques are strong swimmers. The monkeys left the island within days, and reports from the time say Tooey bought a second batch that did the same. By 1963 researchers counted 78 of them. In the 1970s the population expanded downstream along the Ocklawaha River, and by the early 1980s troops ranged across the whole 5,000 acres that now make up the state park.

The story you will hear on the river, that the monkeys were released for the Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan films shot at Silver Springs, is folklore. University of Florida researchers who traced the history found the macaques were already present before filming, and no rhesus macaques appear in the movies. The Tarzan connection is real, the monkey connection to it is not.

How many there are

The honest answer is that nobody has a current full count, and the numbers you see online range from 150 to 400 because they measure different things.

• Inside Silver Springs State Park: University of Florida researchers counted about 175 macaques in five social groups in 2015, the baseline for the herpes B study described below, and later estimated roughly 190. That is the number for the animals a visitor can expect to encounter.
• Along the Ocklawaha River: Troops have lived downstream since the 1970s, outside the park and largely uncounted.
• Statewide: Researchers quoted in 2024 coverage put Florida's rhesus population at roughly 300 to 600. Individual macaques, usually young males pushed out of a troop, have turned up far from Ocala: Orange City, Deltona and DeBary in Volusia County, Mount Dora and Groveland in Lake County, Longwood and Apopka in Seminole and Orange counties, and a lone animal near Hudson Beach on the Gulf coast in Pasco County.

The population has been managed twice. Between 1986 and 1990, 20 females were sterilized. Between 1998 and 2012 a private trapper working under state permits removed roughly 830 to 1,000 macaques from the Silver River and the Ocklawaha. That program ended in 2012 after it emerged that captured animals were being sold to biomedical research, and no removal or sterilization program has operated since. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) has said publicly that it wants the monkeys out of the park, but it has not funded a plan, and the population has grown back toward its pre-trapping size.

Where to see the monkeys

The macaques live along the river corridor, not at the headspring where the boats load. On a normal day at the main entrance you will not see one. To find them, get on the water.

By kayak or canoe. This is the reliable way. The park's paddle launch sits a short walk from the headspring, and the river below it is a slow, clear, five-mile run to Ray Wayside Park with a shuttle back; rentals and guided trips are sold inside the park. The troops work the banks and the cypress and oak canopy on both sides of the first two miles, often within sight of the launch. You will hear them before you see them. The viral videos of monkeys cannonballing off branches into the river were shot from kayaks here.

By glass-bottom boat. The 30-minute tour circles the headspring and rarely reaches monkey territory. The occasional 90-minute tour runs farther down the Silver River and passes the same banks the kayakers paddle; ask at the ticket window which departures are running. Tickets are $17 adult for the short tour and $35 for the long one.

From the trails. Troops do move through the park's uplands, and the monkeys have grown bold enough around the river boardwalks that the park has closed sections of them after too many close encounters. Treat any trail sighting as luck, not a plan.

When. Early morning and late afternoon, when the monkeys forage and the river is quiet. Fall is the breeding season, which is also when herpes B shedding peaks, so give them extra room from September through November. Winter kayaks double as manatee trips: manatees move into the Silver River from December through February.

The rules, which matter more here than anywhere else in the park:

• Do not feed them. Illegal statewide since February 11, 2018, and the single biggest cause of aggressive behavior. Monkeys that have been fed approach boats and chase people.
• Keep food out of sight. Eat inside the Springside Cafe, not on the boardwalks, and keep snacks sealed in a dry bag on the water.
• Stay in the boat and keep paddling. Do not beach near a troop, do not pose for a close photo, do not make eye contact with a large male.
• Keep dogs leashed and close. The macaques treat dogs as a threat.
• Report aggressive animals to the park office or the FWC Wildlife Alert Hotline, 888-404-3922. Report sightings outside Marion County at IveGot1.org.

The herpes B question

Every few years a headline announces that Florida's monkeys carry a deadly herpes virus. Here is what the science actually says.

Rhesus macaques naturally carry macacine herpesvirus 1, commonly called herpes B or B virus. In macaques it behaves like cold-sore herpes does in people: lifelong, mostly dormant, flaring under stress. In the rare cases where it crosses to humans, usually through a bite or scratch, it can cause fatal encephalitis if untreated.

In 2018 a University of Florida team led by Samantha Wisely published the first field data on the Silver Springs population in the CDC journal Emerging Infectious Diseases. They tested blood from 317 macaques trapped between 2000 and 2012 and found that 25 percent on average carried antibodies, rising with age from zero in infants to 75 percent in animals over five. They then swabbed 121 free-ranging monkeys in 2015 and 2016 and detected the virus in saliva only during the fall 2015 breeding season, in 4 to 14 percent of animals. None of the 23 fecal samples were positive.

Two facts belong together. First, a meaningful share of the monkeys you see on the river carry the virus and some are shedding it in the fall. Second, as the authors note, no human infection from a free-ranging macaque has ever been documented anywhere; every known human case, about 50 in the historical record, involved laboratory animals and close handling. The risk is real but it runs through bites and scratches, which means it runs through feeding and crowding. Keep your distance and the risk is close to zero. If a monkey does bite or scratch you, wash the wound for 15 minutes and go to an emergency room the same day; post-exposure treatment exists.

Florida's other wild monkeys

FWC recognizes three established free-roaming monkey species in Florida. Rhesus macaques are the big story. The others:

• Vervet monkeys, Dania Beach. A colony of about 40 African vervets lives in the mangroves beside Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, descended from animals that escaped a roadside chimpanzee attraction in 1948. They are habituated, photogenic and watched by researchers at Florida Atlantic University. The same feeding ban applies.
• Squirrel monkeys. Small South American monkeys that escaped or were released from attractions in the Fort Lauderdale and Naples areas decades ago. FWC still lists them as established, but sightings are now rare and the known colonies have dwindled.

Everything else you hear about, a capuchin in a backyard or a spider monkey on a highway, is an escaped pet, not a wild population.

Should they be removed?

This is the argument that has stalled every management plan since 2012. The case for removal is straightforward: the macaques are a non-native species that raids bird nests, strips vegetation, carries a virus with a 70 percent fatality rate in untreated humans, and grows about 10 percent a year with no predators. FWC and the University of Florida researchers who study them both favor active management.

The case against is that the monkeys have been part of Silver Springs for 90 years, that they draw visitors, and that the last removal program ended in a scandal when the animals ended up in research labs. Local sentiment in Marion County runs strongly toward leaving them alone, and the state has not spent money fighting it.

For a visitor the practical upshot is that the monkeys will be on the river for the foreseeable future, their numbers will keep drifting upward, and the burden of keeping encounters safe falls on you.

Frequently asked questions

Are there monkeys in Florida?

Yes. Florida has three established species of free-roaming monkeys, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission: rhesus macaques along the Silver River near Ocala, a small vervet monkey colony in Dania Beach near Fort Lauderdale airport, and squirrel monkeys. The rhesus macaques are by far the most numerous and the ones visitors actually see.

Why are there monkeys at Silver Springs?

A glass-bottom boat operator known as Colonel Tooey released about six rhesus macaques on an island in the Silver River in the late 1930s to add a jungle feel to his cruise. Macaques swim well, so they left the island almost immediately. The story that they were released for the Tarzan films is folklore; the monkeys were already there, and no rhesus macaques appear in those movies.

How many monkeys are at Silver Springs?

University of Florida researchers counted about 175 macaques in five groups inside Silver Springs State Park in 2015 and later estimated about 190. Including the animals that have spread along the Ocklawaha River and beyond, estimates for the state run from roughly 300 to 600.

Where can you see the monkeys at Silver Springs?

Along the Silver River, not at the headspring. Kayak or canoe downstream from the park launch, or take the longer 90-minute glass-bottom boat tour. The monkeys travel the riverbanks in troops and often sit in trees over the water. Stay in your boat and keep moving.

Do the Silver Springs monkeys have herpes?

Many do. A 2018 study in Emerging Infectious Diseases found that about 25 percent of macaques sampled between 2000 and 2012 carried antibodies to macacine herpesvirus 1, called herpes B, and that 4 to 14 percent were shedding the virus in saliva during the fall breeding season. No human has ever been infected by a free-ranging macaque; every known human case came from laboratory animals. Bites and scratches are the risk, so keep your distance.

Is it legal to feed the monkeys in Florida?

No. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission added free-roaming primates to its feeding prohibition effective February 11, 2018. Feeding wild monkeys is a second-degree misdemeanor.

Plan the visit

Silver Springs State Park is open 8 a.m. to sunset every day, $2 per person at the main entrance or $8 per vehicle at the camping entrance. Swimming is not permitted anywhere in the park, so the river is a boat day. The full visitor guide, including the glass-bottom boat schedule, the 59-site campground and the cabins, is on the Silver Springs State Park page. If you are building a weekend around Ocala, the Orlando springs weekend guide pairs Silver Springs with Rainbow River and Juniper Springs.

Sources

• Wisely, S. M. et al., Macacine Herpesvirus 1 Antibody Prevalence and DNA Shedding among Invasive Rhesus Macaques, Silver Springs State Park, Florida, USA, Emerging Infectious Diseases 24(2), February 2018.
• University of Florida IFAS Extension, History and Status of Introduced Rhesus Macaques (Macaca mulatta) in Silver Springs State Park, Florida.
• Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, New FWC rule prohibits feeding of wild monkeys, February 2018.
• WFTV 9 Investigates, The history of rhesus macaques in Marion County.
• National Geographic, Florida's wild monkeys carry a virus deadly to humans.
• FOX 35 Orlando, Monkey spotted near Mount Dora as sightings continue across Central Florida.
• Local 10, Friendly wild vervet monkey colony grows to 40 in Dania Beach.
• Florida State Parks, Silver Springs State Park.

Last verified November 1, 2026. Population figures are the most recent published estimates; the park does not run an annual count.