Mérida woman finds Spider Monkey in her patio

MÉRIDA, YUCATAN (July 20, 2020) .- A resident of the Francisco Villa Oriente subdivision was very surprised when she went out to her patio and found a spider monkey there.

Apparently, the primate is someone’s pet that escaped from home, because although the spider monkey is a species endemic to the region, in Mérida due to the expansion of the urban infrastructure, it’s been decades since there no more monkeys around.

The discovery was made at approximately 9 pm on Sunday, July 19, at a property on Calle 115 (between 36 and 38), where the owner went out into the courtyard and saw the spider monkey, known in Yucatan as “tucha.”

The woman called the emergency numbers and SSP policemen came to the scene, catching the monkey and keeping it under guard.

It was reported that the specimen will be delivered to the Environmental Management Unit located in the Centennial Zoo.

It is an endangered species that lives in the jungles of the Yucatan Peninsula.

In Yucatan, intensive cultivation of henequen in the late 19th and early 20th centuries caused the loss of many jungles that kept monkeys away from this area.