Monkeys live on all continents except Australia and Antarctica. They often make their homes in trees in warm and wet tropical rainforests, including the Amazon rainforest in South America and the Congo Basin in Central Africa.

Some species have adapted to living in harsh environments, such as desert-like savannas or snowy mountains. For example, Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata), or snow monkeys, have thick fur to survive the most northern parts of their range in Japan, which can be covered in snow for up to a third of the year, according to the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center(opens in new tab). Some Japanese macaques bathe in human-made hot springs in the winter to keep warm, Live Science previously reported.

Humans have introduced monkeys to areas outside of their native range. For example, there are monkeys in Florida even though the U.S. has no native monkey species. A group of green monkeys (Chlorocebus sabaeus) lives near the Fort Lauderdale airport because their ancestors escaped from a nearby private zoo in 1948. The zoo likely imported the monkeys from Sierra Leone, in West Africa, and they've adapted to life in the Floridian mangrove forest, Live Science previously reported. Scientists do not fully understand the impact of this "alien" population on native wildlife, but other monkey populations have become invasive species, meaning they cause environmental or economic harm.

Rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) are highly adaptable, and their native range — which stretches throughout Asia and includes countries such as India — is thought to be the largest of any nonhuman primate, according to the CABI Invasive Species Compendium(opens in new tab), an online encyclopedic resource on invasive species. Rhesus macaques are now invasive in Florida, South Carolina and Puerto Rico. Because of their flexible diet and ability to live in a range of habitats — from tropical forests to cold, mountainous regions — they have the potential to become invasive on every continent except Antarctica.

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