A Florida man recently recorded something you don’t see every day – a troop of monkeys high diving from a tall tree into the river at Silver Springs State Park.
The Florida park has hundreds of wild rhesus macaque monkeys calling it home, and in the video 30 or so are in the branches of a tall tree overhanging the Silver River.
Then one after another they begin jumping from what appears to be a height of 20-30 feet to bellyflop into the water below!
Here is the amazing footage:
@capt.schwanke Came across one troop of about 30 monkeys that crossed the river to fight another group. Turned into a turf war for 45min. Crazy Florida life. #florida #fyp #monkey ? original sound – Capt. Schwanke
How the monkeys first came to live in the area is a bit of a mystery. The consensus is that the population grew from two small groups released into the area nearly a century ago.
Some officials want to reduce or possibly completely eradicate the monkeys at the park due to risk to humans. While the monkeys are not typically aggressive, some of them are infected with the herpes B virus, which can possibly be transmitted to humans.
But for now, Silver Springs State Park is one of the few places in the US where you can see monkeys in the wild. And with a little luck, you might get to see it – as the man in the video exclaims – “raining monkeys.”
