Mystery Monkey caught on tape

ST. PETERSBURG — The monkey really is alive and well. And we have video to prove it.

Following a story published this week in the St. Petersburg Times about a rhesus macaque's elusive ways, a reader who gets regular visits from the Mystery Monkey e-mailed a video he took from his home.

The 27-second video shows the young male monkey picking seeds from a brick patio and shoving them into his mouth while looking around. The videographer, who asked to be kept anonymous to keep his identity and address private, narrates the short video.

"A raccoon was just out there," he says over the video. "The monkey kind of chased him off a little bit, not much."

The videographer lives near the southern tip of Pinellas County, where the Mystery Monkey has been residing for several months and has been seen in various backyards and streets.

This latest video is perhaps the clearest image of the monkey since he has been roaming throughout the Tampa Bay area over the last couple of years.

"I took the video from inside the house as he is very shy and will take off in a heartbeat if he sees movement inside," the videographer said in an e-mail. "He has a couple of acres of woods to hang out in with no one to bother him. There are many critters that live here... all wild except for my cat ... we see otters, fox, coyote, coons, possums, snakes, all the big and small birds, turtles ... but this is the first monkey and it is a hoot to see him swing thru the trees on vines like Tarzan."