Monkey Jungle

If you could take just one photo: Monkey Jungle

scurry through the wire enclosed tunnels. Monkeys stare while chattering noisily, seeming to say “ Check out the big ears. Look at the funny hair. Oh, these guys are so cute!” Feels like you're in a parallel universe at Monkey Jungle because people are caged but the primates run free. The monkeys like to interact with people. In fact, they quickly train their audience to place food, preferably raisins, into small containers that are lowered by chains. Spindly arms and prehensile tails come in handy once the baskets are filled and they haul their eats up into the foliage. Stick around and take in the shows. You might witness skinny dipping Java macaques diving underwater for treats.

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Though it’s seen better days, this small zoo still offers an experience you won’t find anywhere else: an opportunity to feed free-ranging Java macaques and squirrel monkeys. Here, humans roam the 30-acre preserve “encaged” in walkways surrounded on all sides by wire mesh fences. The monkeys climb atop the wire and lower tin cups down to the human visitors, who obligingly fill them with sunflower seeds and raisins. The canny primates then reel up the cups for a quick snack. PETA types may not approve, but the monkeys sure seem to thrive on the setup: when not mooching off visitors, they forage for grubs, sunbathe, groom one another, and, to judge by the large number of babies we saw, engage in other forms of recreation.

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Monkeys swinging from tree to tree have inhabited this 30-acre preserve ever since animal behaviorist Joseph DuMond released six Java monkeys into a Miami hammock more than 75 years ago. Today, nearly 400 primates call Monkey Jungle home, including gorillas, orangutans, and spider monkeys. The sanctuary is one of the few protected preserves for endangered primates in the U.S., and the only facility open to the public. Explore the Amazonian Rainforest, which features howlers, black-capped capuchins, and squirrel monkeys along with hundreds of plants, trees, and palms from the Amazon in South America. Watch aquatic monkeys swim and skin-dive for treats before ending your adventure.

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