Rogue Monkey caught after 3 years on lam

[FreudianSlip]

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The elusive macaque and Florida folk hero was captured Wednesday after a five-hour stakeout (and three-year, on-and-off search) in the woods of St. Petersburg.

The male monkey, who was the subject of a nearly 5,000-word New York Times story this summer, was caught by a Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission spokesman, a professional wildlife trapper and a veterinarian, CBS News reports.

After shooting the monkey with a tranquilizer dart and briefly chasing him through the woods, trapper Vernon Yates apparently caught the Rhesus Macaque with his hand and a catch pole. The monkey was taken to a veterinarian's office.

His capture comes two weeks after biting a woman in south St. Petersburg. Of course, the monkey's 86,000-strong Facebook following is devastated

[Twitchin Kitten]

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Any news on what they're going to do with him? Is he destined for death?

Poor guy. It's not his fault he bit someone. Whoever thinks it's OK to keep wild animals as pets is the one at fault. the monkey was only behaving like a monkey.

[FreudianSlip]

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This article has more info. Within it, they say that he is being checked by a vet and if he is deemed healthy, he will go to a sanctuary.
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The "mystery monkey" who had been on the loose in the Tampa Bay area for more than three years was captured Wednesday, our friends at WUSF report.

As WUSF's Scott Finn writes, the rhesus macaque monkey had become something of a local legend in Tampa and St. Petersburg. He'd also made the national news and had "his own" Facebook page (latest update there: "my freedom has been taken away from me").

It's thought, as WTSP-TV says, that he "escaped from a small colony of monkeys" that live in Silver Springs, Fla. For much of his time on the lam, the monkey was a popular guy. But as Scott notes, "the lighthearted story became more serious earlier this month, when the mystery monkey bit a woman in her backyard after jumping on her back." Neighbors had reportedly been feeding him.

He was captured, according to WTSP, after "a three-hour stakeout" by wildlife officials near "a wooded area in a south St. Pete neighborhood." When the monkey was spotted, he was shot with a tranquilizer dart.

Now, according to the Tampa Bay Times, the monkey has been "placed in quarantine. ... If his health checks out, he could be sent to a sanctuary to be with other monkeys."
The woman he bit, 60-year-old Elizabeth Fowler, tells the Times she knows the monkey needed to be caught, but is still sad that he's leaving the neighborhood. "I feel kind of guilty," she tearfully said.

Officials have given the monkey a name: Cornelius, one of the characters in Planet of the Apes.

Stephen Colbert, by the way, has been on this story from the start.

Florida, of course, has been a good source of interesting animal-related news for us recently: "Mystery Solved: 'Softball-Sized Eyeball' Likely Belongs To A Swordfish."

[Twitchin Kitten]

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Ha, ha, he does look like Cornelius from Planet of the Apes!

I'm glad they aren't just going to kill him right off. I doubt he's rabid too.