Gibraltar’s Monkeys Still Need Help

September 2006

The May 2004 issue of IPPL News reported on the severe problems facing Gibraltar’s wild monkeys. The monkeys belong to the Barbary macaque species and live at a location known as the “Monkey Den.” Despite their not being apes, the animals are locally known as “rock apes.”

The species is found in the North African nations of Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia. The small colony on the island of Gibraltar off the southern coast of Spain is the only group of wild monkeys in Europe. There is a legend that Winston Churchill believed that Gibraltar would remain British only as long as monkeys were present.

In 2004 IPPL members contacted Gibraltar authorities expressing support for a proposed sterilization program and a ban on public feeding of monkeys. Such public feeding can lead to stomach upsets in primates offered unsuitable food and to transmission of human ailments to monkeys, and vice versa.

Sadly it seems that the situation has not improved since 2004. IPPL recently heard from a concerned resident of Gibraltar, reporting that the island’s government was killing what it considered surplus apes and that the apes’ home area, despite the animals being Gibraltar’s leading tourist attraction, was not being properly staffed and maintained.

The Gibraltar Ornithological and Natural History Society, which was contracted by the local government to manage the apes, lacks the funds and manpower to supervise the colony properly. IPPL has been informed that the area where the apes roam is only cleaned once a day, early in the morning, and that they are fed only once a day.

As a result, filth, smells, and flies accumulate in the area, especially during the summer. Unfortunately nobody is present to assist tourists who get bitten, as sometimes happens.  

The Gibraltar resident complained that

the ironic thing is that all Gibraltar’s other tourist attractions have four full time attendants per site to assist visitors in any way they can. Incredibly our apes are the island’s main attraction and one of the main reasons tourists come to Gibraltar. It is the place where you would expect the presence of full-time animal keepers since the macaques roam free. Yet it offers NOTHING.

He blamed the Government and the Gibraltar Tourist Board for permitting over-population. This results in groups splitting up, leading to many monkeys going into residential areas looking for food. This, he says, has led to the senseless killing of many of the macaques roaming away from the area of the “Monkey Den.” The problem, he says, is simple to solve: the authorities could just provide the animals with full time ape keepers, but it seems they are only interested in making money by using the apes to promote tourism.

Help the Barbary Apes: Send Letters to the Gibraltar Government

The Gibraltar Tourist Board maintains a Web site (www.gibraltar.gov.uk/hol). The site tells visitors that, “A basic tour lasts around two hours and takes in thousands of years of Rock evolution, including the famous Barbary Ape Den, habitat to Europe’s only free roaming primates.”

Please send letters to the officials listed below requesting that full-time caregivers be assigned to the Barbary apes and that efforts be made to sterilize animals to keep numbers in check. Postage from the United States to Gibraltar costs 84 cents per ounce.

The Director
Gibraltar Tourist Board
Duke of Kent House
Cathedral Square
Gibraltar
E-mail: tourism@gibraltar.gi

Peter R Caruana, Chief Minister of Gibraltar
Chief Minister’s Office
No. 6 Convent Place
Gibraltar