Not just Africa, South-East Asia or South America: also in Europe there is a colony of wild monkeys. We’re talking about a group of 230/240 Barbary macaques who live mainly on top of the rock of Gibraltaran English territory (a so-called “exclave”) since 1704, located inextreme south of Spain and overlooking the strait of the same name, which separates the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Barbary apes are a species of macaque (Macaca sylvanusalso commonly called Berber or Barbary macaque) originating from Moroccan, Algerian and Tunisian Atlas mountain range. So how did they get from Africa to Europe? The truth is that we don’t know for sure: some scholars believe they were brought to modern-day Gibraltar by the Arabs during their occupation of the Iberian Peninsula in the Middle Ages, in a period between the 8th and 14th centuries. Other theories suggest that monkeys may have been in the south of the Iberian Peninsula as far back as Prehistoryand are a remnant of a much larger population widespread in southern Europe up to 5.5 million years ago.

Regardless of their origin, Gibraltar Barbary Macaques are a real symbol of the place and today they are one of the main ones attractions for visiting tourists to the British location. However, the close contact between humans and monkeys has over time led to some problems: first of all it has partly altered the animal diet due to the fact that visitors began to feed them anything. This, on the other hand, made the Barbary apes less “shy” towards people, so much so that some specimens began to steal food to tourists or to harass them with a certain insistence to obtain it. To try to overcome both problems, the Gibraltar authorities therefore decided to establish strict rulesinviting visitors not to feed or get too close to the animals as well as not to scream or make sudden movements.

On the other hand theimportance given by the British administration to the Barbary macaques of Gibraltar is much larger than one might think. A legend he wants, in fact, that as long as the Berber macaques remain in Gibraltar, the territory will remain under the English control. This superstition is so ingrained in British culture that the 1942 (or 1944 according to other versions), during the Second World War, as the Barbary macaque population dangerously decreased to the point where there were only a few specimens, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Winston Churchill he ordered more Berber macaques to be secretly brought in from Morocco and Algeria to ensure that the colony did not die out and to keep the folk tale alive. This was also to keep up the morale of the population, partly evacuated from the area, and of the troops stationed there, awaiting a possible attack by Germany.
Nowadays the care towards animals is unchanged and consider that each Berber macaque is carefully monitored to ensure its well-being. Some specimens are even cared for in a dedicated facility if they become ill or injured.

To conclude, we come to a brief description of the main ones characteristics of Macaca sylvanusthe only non-Asian macaque. It is a primate of medium size (reaches a length of approximately 75 cm and a height of approximately 50 cm), is without tail (unlike other macaque species), it has a light brown coat and muzzle, paws and ears largely hairless and pale pink. It lives in large groups led by a pack leader, usually an adult male, it prefers arid and stony environmentsbut also woods (remember that its main habitat is the Atlas mountain range, in Morocco and Algeria) and it is omnivorous: it mainly eats insects, worms and scorpions and plants of various kinds.
