Monkeys Gone Wild

About 30 years ago the Rhesus monkey, native to India and Nepal and red monkeys from central Africa were brought to Puerto Rico to be part of experiments. They were located on a little island off the coast of Humacao. When the research was done, about 100 monkeys were left behind on the island. Scientist thought that these monkeys would never make it to the mainland because they didn't swim. WRONG. 30 Years later the feral population of these monkeys number over 1,000. And guess what? They learned to swim, and are now all over Puerto Rico.

The farmers on the island are going crazy. The monkeys are eating and destroying crops. They have become a real problem as their numbers are growing and they no longer confine themselves to rural parts of the island. They have been found very close to major cities, including San Juan.

Our government has set aside $450,000 to capture the monkeys and either send them to research centers, sanctuaries or euthanize them. Traps have been set for over a month and so far they have managed to capture zero, nada, not one monkey. The monkeys are winning. They have learned to by pass electrical fences, and traps.

Since the first 8 government traps were set out, the primates have snatched the bait and eluded capture, drawing ridicule from local farmers, who blame the monkeys for devastating their crops for the last decade. Farmers were able to capture 2 monkeys within an hour of the media showing up by setting traps with mangos as bait around a favorite monkey watering hole.

Government $450,000 plan: 0 monkeys
Farmers $0.50/ mango plan: 2 monkeys

Now if you do the math, it would seem one of these plans is not very cost effective. Our government works in strange and mysterious ways.