Morgan Island

Morgan Island is one of the Sea Islands, located in Beaufort County, South Carolina (just north of Beaufort, South Carolina). It is also known as Monkey Island due to its colony of free-ranging rhesus monkeys, established in 1979. Historically, the island has been uninhabitited due to its location and distance from the mainland. The island's layout consists mainly of marsh-land, but does have 635 acres of higher ground (Klopchin). Originally, the monkey colony now located on Morgan Island was located in La Parguera, Puerto Rico at the Caribbean Primate Research Center. According to the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention), there were incidents of the free-ranging monkeys escaping while infected with the herpes B virus. Although the herpes B virus is not harmful to the monkeys, once transmitted to a human the virus infection has an almost 80% fatality rate. The CDC report stated that there were outbreaks among locals when the monkeys became overpopulated. Puerto Rico was alarmed by this, and South Carolina stepped in to offer an island for research. South Carolina offered uninhabited Morgan Island for the monkeys to be housed. In 1979, over 1,400 animals were relocated to Morgan Island.