Turtle Beach Monkeys
Photo courtesy of tripadvisor .
Turtle Beach Monkeys and Big Major Cay Pigs —
Some of the most unusual animal human interactions take place at two different Caribbean beaches. One is Turtle Beach in St. Kitts, which is home to a group of vervet monkeys who like to steal drinks from tourists. The other is a beach on Big Major Cay in Exumas, Bahamas where friendly pigs swim right off the beach.
Drunk Monkeys at Turtle Beach
Turtle Beach in St. Kitts is where you can find a group of vervet monkeys that roam the beach waiting for tourists to leave their drinks. Legend has it that the monkeys were brought to St. Kitts over 300 years ago and developed their taste for alcohol as a result of eating fermented fruits off the forest floor.
The Turtle Beach drunk monkeys have become such a phenomenon that research has been done on them with the results dividing the monkeys into four main categories: binge drinker, steady drinker, social drinker and teetotaler. Interestingly, humans fall into these same four categories.
Swimming Pigs at Big Major Cay
Big Major Cay is an uninhabited island in Exuma, the Bahamas. There are various theories on how the pigs got there including
- They were dropped off by some sailors who planned to come back to eat them.
- They survived a shipwreck and made it to shore.
- They escaped from a nearby island.
- They were part of a business scheme to attract tourists.
However they got there, the pigs are now a popular tourist attraction. Good thing for the pigs too because they survive off of food brought by tourists and locals. According to underwater photographer Eric Cheng, since people bring food, “the pigs will run into the water and actually swim out to the oncoming boats, as if to greet them individually.”
To many joyful beach experiences!
— Lisa Dworkin
