an African primate, native of Morocco and Algeria.
medium sized, uniform in colour, usually ochre-brown but can be grey to
blonde. The average male weighs 14kg and the female 11kg. Barbary macques
live in large groups and uniquely males are non-aggressive towards each
other, and infants from new-born receive special caring attention.
originally have been imported during the Moorish occupation (711 to 1492).
As numbers increased, various troops descended from the rock into the town
looking for food, water and amusement, robbing fruit trees, and entering
houses to re-arrange furniture. Complaints of vandalism resulted in the
appointment of an “Officer-in-charge” of the ‘apes’ (1913) to feed the
Numbers were reinforced during the 2nd World War with
imports from Morocco on the orders of Winston Churchill. The legend that as
long as the ‘apes’ remain, the Rock will be British, may have resulted from
an incident when the monkeys woke British defenders during the Great Siege
of 1779-83 as Spanish invaders attempted a surprise attack.
The current population of 200 monkeys are fed and
managed by the Gibraltar Ornithological & Natural History Society and
encouraged to remain in the Upper Rock Nature Reserve. However, they still
occasionally descend into the town in small groups...... perhaps to look at the