Cayo Santiago

Cayo Santiago, also known as Santiago Island, Isla de los monos (or Island of the monkeys), is located at 18°09′23″N 65°44′03″W, 0.59 mi (0.95 km) 0.6 mi (1.0 km) to the east of Punta Santiago, Humacao, Puerto Rico.[1][2]

Census Bureau Map
Cayo Santiago, Santiago Island
A view of Cayo Santiago
Cayo Santiago, Santiago Island
Cayo Santiago, Santiago Island
Cayo Santiago, Santiago Island
Geography
LocationHumacao, Puerto Rico
Coordinates18°9′23″N 65°44′3″W
Area0.139179 km2 (0.053737 sq mi)
Length0.6 km (0.37 mi)
Width0.4 km (0.25 mi)
Highest elevation34.9 m (114.5 ft)
Highest pointEl Morrillo or "Big Cay hill top"
Administration
CommonwealthPuerto Rico
MunicipalityHumacao
Shy monkey at Cayo Santiago, Puerto Rico

Geography
Nautical Chart of Cayo Santiago area

The island measures approximately 37.5 acres (15.2 ha), 660 yards (600 m) north–south and 440 yards (400 m) east–west, including a "Small Cay" which is connected to the main part ("Big Cay") by a narrow sandy isthmus. Six hundred meters west of the southernmost point is a shoal, Bajo Evelyn, which has a shallow depth of 8 fathoms. While the island is flat in the north, it reaches a height of 114.5 ft (34.9 m), 1.8 mi (2.9 km) southwest of the island's port, on a small rocky hill called El Morrillo, which rises abruptly from the water and the lowland around it. The area of the island is 0.054 square miles (0.14 km²) (1,498,110 sq ft (139,179 m2): Block 2000, Census Block Group 2, Census tract 1801, Humacao Municipio, Puerto Rico), of which the northeastern peninsula accounts for about 0.01 sq mi (0.03 km2). In the late 1940s, the island was expropriated by Puerto Rico from its private owners and ceded to the University of Puerto Rico. Only researchers are allowed on the island, but tourists can charter a boat to view the island and its primate inhabitants.[3]

Fauna
A monkey walks on the beach of Cayo Santiago.

Since December 1938, the island has been the habitat for a free-ranging population of Rhesus monkeys. The monkeys are the offspring of an original group of 30 monkeys imported from India[4] by Clarence R. Carpenter and the School of Tropical Medicine in San Juan that was operated by Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and the University of Puerto Rico. Today, the colony, which numbers over a thousand animals, serves as a research resource supported by the National Institutes of Health and the University of Puerto Rico Caribbean Primate Research Center for investigators from many institutions in the USA and several in Europe. A pictorial history on the 75 years of the colony was recently published [see external link].

Cayo Batata, a small island located 4 mi (6 km) to the southwest of Cayo Santiago, is under the jurisdiction of Humacao and is uninhabited by humans.

References
  1. Kessler, Matthew J.; Rawlins, Richard G. (2016-01-01). "A 75‐year pictorial history of the Cayo Santiago rhesus monkey colony". American Journal of Primatology. 78 (1): 6–43. doi:10.1002/ajp.22381. ISSN 1098-2345. PMC 4567979. PMID 25764995.
  2. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh86004959.html
  3. "Monkey Island". Atlas Obscura. Retrieved 15 June 2019.
  4. "MONKEY BUSINESS IN PUERTO RICO". The World's News (Sydney, NSW : 1901 - 1955). 4 November 1950. Retrieved 29 October 2019.
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