Excuse Me, But Is That a Monkey on Your Head?

Of all of our monkey encounters in the last 6 months, having a monkey jump onto our head and shoulders beats them all.

Mona monkeys live wild in the tropical rainforest of Grenada, although at Grand Etang Lake they have become so used to visitors bringing them fruit that they are an attraction of their own on tours of the island. These monkeys were first brought to Grenada from West Africa in the 18th century, via the slave trade, but a wild population has since established itself here.

Tour guides on the island know how to attract the monkeys, bribing them down from the trees with mangoes (their favorite, according to Cutty, our tour guide), bananas, and other tropical fruit.

Because it’s a common and adaptable species, it is actually hunted for food here on Grenada, although since the destruction wreaked by Hurricane Ivan in 2004, the hunting season has been decreased from 6 months a year to 3 months. And although we consider ourselves adventurous eaters, we won’t be seeking this out at any restaurants here on the island. (And the Grenadians that we’ve asked say that this hasn’t actually been the case for decades…)