It started with missing mangoes.
Former NBC correspondent Kerry Sanders noticed some bare branches on his backyard tree, so he tried to peel back the mystery, discovered the culprit and it wasn’t the iguana or raccoon he expected.
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“I came out and I couldn’t believe what I saw, stealing our mangoes, eating right there, a monkey, this is bananas!” Sanders said.
You could say the Riverside Park neighborhood of Fort Lauderdale has gone ape.
How cool is it to see a monkey in your backyard?
“Very cool!” said 6-year-old Myah Seib.
She told us the unexpected guest, a vervet monkey, freaked her out a little when she took a banana right from her hand.
“It’s because it’s very cool and I never done that in my whole life, it’s the craziest thing I ever done,” Myah said.
Everyone here, it seems, has a monkey tale.
“We had put out a banana and she found it, she peeled it, enjoyed it and walked back next to me and ate the other half and went on her merry way!” said Steve Nordyk.
The folks at the Dania Beach Monkey Sanctuary know the wayward animal. They rehabilitate injured monkeys, and they say the vervet visitor is a runaway from the wild colony that lives near the sanctuary and visits the facility every day.
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“Her little bachelorette galavant is what I’m calling this,” said Dr. Missy Williams, director of the sanctuary, who said they know her as Maddie.
Williams said it’s extremely rare for females to leave the colony.
“I was very surprised to see that this was a female that had left the wild population so we’re really not quite sure what sparked her to leave her social group,” Williams explained.
So Maddie left her prime mates for the single life.
“So I think the big question is, is it just one, or is there more, is there a tribe, and my fear is if there are more, it will be monkey see, monkey do,” Sanders said.
Williams says if anyone sees Maddie, they should not feed her. Instead, take a picture and email it to the Dania Beach Monkey Sanctuary so they can keep track of the monkey. They are trying to coax it back to its colony.
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