Mystery Monkey Making Move to Dade City

Tampa Bay’s elusive celebrity will soon call the Wild Things zoo home.

One of Tampa Bay’s most notorious fugitives is making the move to Pasco County. Cornelius, the rhesus macaque who eluded capture for years while making headlines throughout Pasco, Pinellas and Hillsborough counties, is anticipated to arrive at Dade City’s Wild Things zoo on Monday, according to TBO.com. The little macaque’s antics earned him plenty of press – both good and bad. There were sightings near Westchase in Town ‘N County and Pasco County during the monkey's years on the run. The little critter, believed to have been cast out of a colony in Silver Springs, was also accused of biting a woman during his lengthy life on the lam in Pinellas County. The Mystery Monkey, who was renamed Cornelius after a character in “The Planet of the …

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What's Tampa Bay Saying?

What Should Happen to Tampa Bay's Mystery Monkey?

The monkey, spotted all over the Tampa Bay area in recent years, seems headed for life in captivity at an animal sanctuary. Is that the right move?

The mystery monkey that had been on the lam in the Tampa Bay area for years has been captured. The wild monkey, whom officials speculate had been cast out of a colony in Silver Springs, had previously been spotted everywhere from Pasco County to Temple Terrace, Town ‘N Country to Clearwater. He settled in southern Pinellas County before trappers finally caught up with him in a St. Petersburg neighborhood this week after he bit a woman. The rhesus macaque monkey was taken to a Safety Harbor animal hospital for examination and is to be placed in quarantine for 30 days at an area wildlife compound while he is tested for diseases, the Tampa Bay Times reports. From there, the monkey will likely go to a sanctuary in Florida to be with other …

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