Ocala, Fla. — For canoeists and kayakers who enjoy watching wildlife, the Silver River offers a kaleidoscope of birds and animals.

Anhingas. Alligators. Cormorants. Egrets. Turtles. Ibises. Wood storks. Rhesus monkeys.

Jack Horan/Special (ENLARGE)
Phyllis Duncan (in bow) and Cleo Smith, both of Raleigh, N.C., paddle downstream from Silver Springs in late December.
Jack Horan/Special (ENLARGE)
Paddlers can see monkeys along the river, from a population released there in the 1930s by S. Colonel Tooey, who operated the Jungle Cruise boat ride on Silver River.
Jack Horan/Special (ENLARGE)
A black-crowned night heron spotted on the Silver River.
Jack Horan/Special (ENLARGE)
Silver River canoeists take a lunch break on the 5-mile-long waterway that begins in Silver Springs, Fla., home of the largest limestone artesian spring in the world.
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Rhesus monkeys? Yep. Wild monkeys roam the banks of this 5-mile-long river in north central Florida as they have for 70 years. They're usually easy to spot as they gambol along the banks, foraging for food and making a racket jumping through saw palmettos.

They draw surprised stares and whirring camcorders from paddlers who glide over the glass-clear waters that flow from Silver Springs, home of the largest limestone artesian spring in the world. The monkeys, in turn, return the stares with curiosity or indifferently go about their business.

The river probably looks much like it did 130 years ago, when steamboats ferried sightseers up the St. Johns River from Jacksonville to the Ocklawaha River and to Silver Springs. No houses obtrude into this wilderness. Surrounding the river is Silver River State Park, whose 5,000 acres protect both sides from development but not the immediate area around the springs.

I paddled the Silver with a group of 12 led by Bob and Donna Benner of Morganton, N.C., and Cleo Smith and Phyllis Duncan of Raleigh, N.C. Each winter they migrate to Florida to spend a week canoeing and bicycling.

We launched from Ray Wayside Park off State Road 40, where the Silver meets the Ocklawaha. From an access canal, we turned right into the river's moderate, 3/4-mile-an-hour current. The current isn't overwhelming; paddlers can minimize its effect by steering their craft along the shallows. On the second half of the 10-mile round trip, it's all downhill, so to speak, as the current conveys you back.

Within 20 minutes, the first monkeys appeared among the bald cypress trees, halting our strung-out cavalcade for several minutes.

Overhead, double-crested cormorants shot up and down the river like F16s on strafing runs. They resemble another water bird, the anhinga. But a cormorant's bill is hooked while the anhinga's is straight. Anhingas dive for fish, then sit on a limb to dry their wings because they lack oil glands. The human-habituated birds often don't move from perching places on limbs until a boater gets within 10 feet or so.

Below, largemouth bass and bluegills cruised the transparent water. Don't think of dropping a hook, though — the state park bans fishing.

Submerged trees seemed to form grottoes in the river's turquoise depths. Waving eel grass and white sand bottoms enhanced the river's semi-tropical beauty.

The paddle to the headwaters at Silver Springs took three hours, including a lunch stop. The river is open to motorboats but with restrictions: Idle speed, no wake. Still, canoeists should be prepared for wakes from passing boats.

About a quarter-mile below Silver Springs, the river widens. This is the best place to see basking gators. We saw several up to 6 feet lying on mats of vegetation. A bulky 9-footer, with black patent leather hide, slouched on a log. We could only imagine what fattened his belly.

Here, paddlers encounter tour boats guiding visitors around Silver Springs, the same-name nature theme park. It's famous for the glass-bottom boat, invented here in 1878 when Hullam Jones installed a glass viewing box in the bottom of a dugout canoe, according www.silversprings.com.

The springs were the location for six Tarzan movies, the 1954 monster movie, "Creature from the Black Lagoon" and more than 100 episodes of the 1958-61 TV series "Sea Hunt."

Canoeists and kayakers can paddle to the headwaters spring, navigating among the glass-bottom boats, but can't enter the left channel (going upstream), designated for cruise boats. Paddlers also may not land on shore, which is private property, said Steve Specht, Silver Springs marketing director.

The Silver River's monkeys arrived in the late 1930s. S. Colonel Tooey, who operated the Jungle Cruise boat ride at the time, released monkeys from Southeast Asia on an island in the river to entice tourists to the area, according to a report in the Ocala Star-Banner. The monkeys swam the river and formed wild troops in the swamp forest.

Monkey numbers have been reduced from a high of about 185 in the mid-1980s. Bob LaMont, manager of the 11-year-old park, said some monkeys have been trapped and removed because they're an exotic species. LaMont doesn't know how many live in the park today, and the park doesn't mention them on its bird, reptile and animal list.

"They don't belong here, LaMont says. "They're a hazard to people on the river [potentially through bites and disease]."

In Tallahassee, Anthony DeLuise, spokesman for the Department of Environmental Protection, parent agency of the state park, said the population is "being controlled, not eliminated."

Our group saw about 15 or so in different groups. Native or not, the swamp-loving simians provided us with souvenir photos and delighted paddler Abby Martin, 12, of Morganton, N.C.

"I liked seeing the monkeys and stuff," said Abby, paddling with granddad Charles Moeller. "That was very, very cool."

— Jack Horan is outdoors correspondent for The Charlotte [N.C.] Observer and co-author of "Paddling South Carolina/A Guide to Palmetto State River Trails."