Off the coast of Beaufort, South Carolina, lies a small, marshy island that looks like dozens of others scattered along the state's Lowcountry. But Morgan Island hides a strange secret: it is home to thousands of rhesus macaques, and not a single permanent human resident. Commonly known as "Monkey Island," the nearly 4,500-acre island has been completely off-limits to the public for decades, guarded by "no trespassing" signs and federal contracts. The monkeys here are not native to America. They arrived from Puerto Rico in 1979 as part of a biomedical research programme, and they have since multiplied into one of the largest primate colonies in the continental United States. Here's the strange story of how Morgan Island became Monkey Island.
How Morgan Island in South Carolina became home to thousands of rhesus monkeys
