Silver Springs State Park, Florida

Thesis Research - Silver Springs State Park, Florida June 2024 - December 2024

Silver Springs State Park is a popular park that offers canoeing, kayaking, and a glass-bottom boat tour, all of which provide opportunities to see a variety of wildlife (e.g., alligators, manatees, river otters, and wild rhesus macaques). The park also has several walking trails and a campsite for overnight stays.

Most of my observations of the monkeys took place on a kayak along the Silver River on the Fort King trail, with some observations on the walking trail. My research examined aggressive behaviors, grooming patterns, and self-directed behaviors of different age and sex classes of rhesus macaques in the presence and absence of park staff and visitors. Human proximity was also taken into account when observing monkeys in the presence of humans, both with and without park staff and visitors. Observations on learning age and class were collected from June 10th to July 31st, 2024. Behavioral observations were recorded ad libitum from September 1st to December 18th, 2024, with a total of 22 monkeys observed for 2-5 minutes each using behaviors from an ethogram. A total of 81 minutes of video footage was collected. The management at Silver Springs State Park fails to acknowledge the monkeys on their website. Additionally, there are minimal signs about the monkeys at the park, but numerous signs about other wildlife animals.