Few people in South Carolina know there's a sea island approximately 10 miles from beautiful downtown Beaufort that was once an active research laboratory. Today, however, the property is just merely the home of the island's former research subjects: an entire colony of free-range Rhesus monkeys that's now grown to approximately 4,000 strong.

The monkeys, one of only two colonies of Rhesus monkeys in the U.S., were brought to Morgan Island in the 1970s from Puerto Rico as part of laboratory research projects that no longer exist.

In the beginning, 1,300 monkeys were shipped to South Carolina from Puerto Rico. Typically, the Rhesus macaque is native to South, Central, and Southeast Asia.

There is only one other place in the U.S. where Rhesus monkeys live and thrive in the wild, and the story there is entirely different than the research that brought them to South Carolina. As history tells it, the monkeys currently living in Silver Springs, Florida, were brought in by a boat tour attraction in the springs approximately a hundred years ago and set free to serve as eye candy for tourists. Today, Silver Springs is estimated to have about 400 Rhesus monkeys living in the wild.

Both colonies of monkeys can be seen from the shore.

Visitors to Silver Springs can kayak down the lazy rivers of the park and see the monkeys up close without getting too close. Tales spin all over Florida of uninformed visitors who happen to have food on their kayaks and find themselves under siege from the monkeys who don't hesitate to take a little swim out to a kayak to score some food. The lesson here is to heed the warning: Leave the food at home. These monkeys, although cute... are not friendly.

At South Carolina's Monkey Island, the monkeys are often seen along the beach and among the many trees that line the water's edge along the island. There are No Trespassing signs posted all along the island. It's okay to roll up in a boat and look, but do not disembark and go ashore. It's not safe - and it's illegal.

A few tour companies in and around Beaufort and Edisto have designated boat tours that ferry guests over to have a look at the cute non-human primates that call the island home.

One of them, Botany Bay Ecotours, offers tours in the spring and fall.

In their experience, the monkeys don't much like to spend time on the beach in the heat of the summer. The best bet is to see them in the spring and fall, and this is when the tour is best taken.

The tour lasts 2.5 hours and also doles out some breathtaking scenery as it maneuvers over and through three different coastal tributaries on its way to the island.

One thing to keep in mind, and something Botany Bay Ecotours very explicitly explains on their website, here, is that there's no guarantee you'll see the monkeys. But they do very often show up in the spring and fall.

South Carolina's coast is home to some extraordinary sights.

The coastal vistas, with low-hanging branches of enormous live oak trees strewn with Spanish moss, marshlands with wispy tall grass waving gently in the breeze, and some of the most beautiful beaches in America are among the most commonly sought after sights.

But did you know there's also a free-ranging colony of wild Rhesus monkeys found along the coast here too?