Monkeyshines : Where’s Tarzan When Florida Really Needs Him?

Since the 1930s when Tarzan swung through the jungle-like foliage along the pristine Silver River, wild monkeys have roamed free at this popular old tourist attraction in central Florida.

Johnny Weismuller and the rest of the cast filmed the last Tarzan movie here 50 years ago, but they left behind some friends--a colony of monkeys, hardy little primates that grow to about 30 pounds.

The rub is, descendants of Tarzan’s monkeys started wandering off their home turf, sometimes biting people and stealing food. Their days on the Silver River appear to be numbered.

State wildlife officials say the monkeys must be confined.

Officials of the 4,000-acre Silver Springs park say cages or fences are out of the question. It would ruin the ambiance of the place. Instead, they’re trying to find new homes for the monkeys, with little luck so far.

Meanwhile, animal rights activists are watching to make sure the monkeys don’t wind up as guinea pigs, like 200 of their predecessors who were sold to an animal research laboratory.

In the 50 years since the Tarzan series was filmed here, the monkey population has swelled, at one point numbering more than 400 in troops on both sides of the crystal-clear Silver River.

The monkeys are favorites of the tourists plying the river in boats with glass bottoms, watching schools of fish and other underwater creatures. Underwater limestone caves shimmer in the sunlight, giving the river a silvery look.

It’s an idyllic setting, providing scenery for such movies as the James Bond thrillers “Never Say Never Again” and “Moonraker”; “Cross Creek”; “Smokey and the Bandit” and Lloyd Bridges’ early TV series, “Sea Hunt.”

The tour boats quietly glide past stately bald cypress and water oaks. As they swing past the monkey colonies, the boats trip an electric eye that sets off a recorded Tarzan yell. The boat captains stop briefly to toss slices of bread to the monkeys who scamper to the water’s edge for the handouts.

Sometimes Tarzan hollers when no boat is near. Some clever monkeys have discovered how to trip the jungle cry.

Silver Springs is the only place in the country where these animals can be seen in the wild, according to researchers. The monkeys are intelligent, the researchers say, almost like humans in the way they care for their young, their sense of family and ordered social structure.

But young primates venture into the surrounding countryside in search of a mate. They do not inbreed and thus the journeys at times become long and lonely for a species native to India, not Florida.

State wildlife officials protested that strays were biting humans, stealing their food, ravaging citrus groves and invading the nearby Ocala National Forest where they compete with native species.

State authorities say 17 monkey attacks were reported between 1977 and 1983, and in June, 1984, a 4-year-old Alabama boy was bitten on the head in the park and had to undergo painful rabies shots.

Game officers say monkeys have been sighted scavenging garbage bins across the road from the park, in backyards in nearby Ocala and running along the St. Johns River, 60 to 70 miles away.

The Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission ordered Silver Springs to either confine or get rid of about 80 of the monkeys that live on the north side of the river. That is the colony that lives closest to State Road 40 and ignores the rules to stay put.

Silver Springs rejected confining the monkeys, saying it was impractical and would ruin the natural setting that draws tourists.

The owners two years ago thinned the monkey population, hoping to ease the problems, but instead created more. They trapped and sold 217 of the monkeys to an animal laboratory supply house, triggering a public outcry from animal rights activists.

This time, Silver Springs has asked humane groups and animal rights groups to help find the monkeys a new home so they don’t wind up in laboratory research.

‘Not a Danger’

Animal rights leaders insist that the monkeys are getting a bum rap. They dispute the state’s statistics, insisting that there have been few attacks and they were minor and in every case provoked. They blame a marauding bachelor band of young male outcasts.

Only six of the 17 reported attacks involved Silver Springs monkeys, says Linda Wolfe, a primatologist at the University of Florida who has been studying these monkeys since 1980. In each case, the attack was invited by humans who tried to feed or cuddle the simians, she says.

“They don’t deliberately attack people,” she says. “They are not a danger to the public.”

Wolfe sides with National Animal Rights Inc., People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, and the Humane Society of the U.S. who want the state to grant a reprieve and let the monkeys stay. They say selective sterilization would control the population.

‘Can Still Bite’

But the state is digging in its heels.

“Sterilized monkeys can still bite and still escape from the property,” says Maj. Kyle Hill of the commission’s law enforcement division. “Silver Springs can keep every one of them, if they keep them on their property and keep them from biting people.”

Dave Warren, director of marketing at Silver Springs, says one of the problems is that the river is a public waterway, accessible to people who come in private boats and feed the monkeys despite warning signs.

Hill says state authorities wrote Silver Springs officials in mid-April and told them, “Listen, we’ve given you two years and you have not complied with an agreement made in 1984 to contain them so that they don’t bite folks. We want the problem taken care of immediately.”

60 Monkeys Caught

About 18 months ago, Silver Springs tried unsuccessfully to trap the troublesome troop on the north side of the river and relocate it on the other side. But the territorial primates didn’t like mingling, jumped in the river and headed home.