St. Kitts and Nevis, Tourists and Monkeys
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A woman holds up a baby vervet monkey she and her family adopted after the monkey's mother was killed by a dog at Turtle Beach, St. Kitts, ten miles outside Basseterre, the capital city, June 21, 2002. The family and monkey have received rabie shots. A troop of vervet monkeys show up daily at Turtle Beach for food and passion fruit juice served to them at the local bar. St. Christopher, as St. Kitts is formally known, was named after Christopher Columbus who first visited the volcanic island in 1493. The British and French fought over the island ever since the British settled in 1623. Sugar cane was planted soon after and became the island's main export and resulted in the importation of slave labor. The island is home to thousands of African vervet monkeys. Locals estimate the monkey population is nearly double the island's human population of 40,000. The monkeys were first brought over by the British as pets and soon escaped. Monkey trappers scour the island attempting to trap the green vervet monkeys. No hunting is permitted around Turtle Beach and monkeys are protected. A troop of monkeys comes daily to the Turtle Beach bar to drink passion fruit juice. Many monkeys are sold to a Yale University supported laboratory situated in a restored sugar mill. The St. Kitts Biomedical Research Foundation uses the monkeys in stem cell research, Parkinson's disease research, alcoholism, epilepsy, gene therapy and neurodegenerative disorders. A green vervet monkey can sell for up to $500 USD to overseas laboratories. Yale's St. Kitts Biomedical Research Foundation pays trappers $50-$150 depending on specific requirements for research. Local farmers bitterly complain the vervet monkeys ruin their crops and devour mangoes, cashews, and sweet potatoes.
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