One Monkey vs. the World

By Rainbow Starr
Environmental Reporter
ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA - The hunt for the Mystery Monkey of Tampa Bay has entered its fourth day without success.
     The wild monkey was spotted this morning. However, he has not yet fallen for any of the traps that have been placed by a professional trapper. The monkey has been swinging around the neighborhoods near the St. Petersburg Country Club and the Boyd Hill Nature Preserve for several years. The Mystery Monkey had been a novelty and local celebrity. In the old west, folks would say they were going into town to "see the elephant" as an euphemism for going on an adventure. Around St. Petersburg, a similar brag is now made by those who've "seen the monkey."
      NBC Channel 8 led the 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. local newscast with an update of the hunt for the Mystery Monkey of Tampa Bay. The neighborhood residents who they interviewed told new tales about their simian intruder. The wild rhesus monkey shows no fear of humans and has brazenly lounged around neighborhood pools and peered into house windows like a peeping Tom. The Mystery Monkey has also charged a news crew and stood in a tree, shaking a branch and screaming defiantly at a resident. State wildlife experts say such monkey business is intended to warn humans out of "his" territory.
     After trapping the Mystery Monkey of Tampa Bay, state officials plan to relocate him to live with his own kind.
     At this point, I'm beginning to root for the monkey.

This story began in "Monkey Bites St. Pete Woman" and concludes in "Betrayed with a Kiss and a Banana."