On this South Carolina Island, only monkeys are allowed to hang out

A mother and baby monkey are seen on Morgan Island, near Beaufort, South Carolina.Photo byBuddy Bizzell

Yes, there are monkeys in the Lowcountry of South Carolina.

Well, sort of.

You won’t see one crossing the road and you don’t have to worry about them crashing your backyard BBQ looking for a meal, either.

They live on Monkey Island. Officially named Morgan Island, it’s trees, dunes and beaches are inhabited by nearly 4000 monkeys. According to Travel + Leisure, it’s home to one of only two Rhesus monkey colonies in the U.S. and is considered the largest free-ranging monkey colony in the entire country. Though it can be difficult to find on a map, it’s a 2,000 acre island located north of St. Helena Island where the Coosaw and Morgan Rivers meet, in Beaufort County.

In the late 1970s, the original monkey colony of 1400 was moved to Morgan Island from a research facility in Puerto Rico. This happened after several monkeys infected with a virus escaped the facility and caused outbreaks among the locals in Puerto Rico; and the state of South Carolina offered the island for research.

While the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources owns the island, the monkeys are property of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institute for Health, and therefore protected by federal law. The colony is provided food, water and veterinary care in compliance with federal laws.

The monkeys offer entertainment of all kinds for folks who come by in boats and kayaks…and they sure are cute, but they are also quite dangerous.

Federal law prohibits people from being on the island, but boaters regularly view the monkeys safely from the water, often seeing them playing, eating and walking on the beach…or just doing whatever monkeys do.

This is truly a wild monkey island, not a monkey habitat within the safe confines of a zoo. There are a few local Beaufort-area tour companies that will take you near the island. The best time to catch them out in the open is during the morning when they are hanging out on the beach and exterior parts of the island. Like us humans, they’ll search for shade during the heat of the day, and then they’ll be gone until the next morning.