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Morgan Island is one of the South Carolina Sea Islands, a barrier island located just north of Beaufort, between the Coosaw and Morgan Rivers. It borders Parrot Creek and Saint Helena Sound. This uninhabited island is popularly called Monkey Island because it is home to a colony of free-ranging rhesus monkeys. The colony was established in 1979 and is owned by the US Food and Drug Administration. The monkeys, of which there are more than 3,000, are part of a colony that was once used for testing and biomedical research. Morgan Island is covered by 4,489 acres of marshland and 635 acres of upland. The 370-acre part of the island’s upland is covered by a semi-tropical maritime forest, which offers a home to the resident monkeys.
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