Gibraltar Monkeys: One of the most iconic things about Gibraltar and something that almost everyone remembers is the Barbary apes we have living up high on the rock.The Apes’ Den otherwise known as the Queen’s Gate and in the area where the Great Siege Tunnels are located you will see semi-wild primates up close and personal. Whilst being undisturbed by tourists you can witness their captivating natural behaviour.
The species of apes are tailless monkeys called Barbary Macaques, their origin is usually Morocco and Algeria. The apes in Gibraltar are the only wild monkeys in Europe today. The species’ alternative names, the Barbary ape or Rock ape are somewhat misleading; though it lacks a tail, as do apes they are in fact a macaque, belonging to the old world monkeys. Like all macaques, they have powerful jaws, long canine teeth, and cheek pouches beside the lower teeth that extend down the sides of the neck.
These pouches are used to store food when foraging and are able to hold a volume of food as large as their stomachs. You will often see the monkey filling up these pouches during feeding times on the rock. Cheeky little monkeys ramming food into their mouths to later feast upon.Currently there are around 160 monkeys living in Gibraltar in two main areas. Usually around 20 can be observed at the Apes’ Den. However, the largest population can be found nearer to the Great Siege area.
Barbary Macaques show moderate sexual dimorphism in body size and the larger males reach sexual maturity and adult body weight later than females. The average body weight in wild-collected adults is 9.9kg in females and 14.5kg in males.
The life expectancy is usually up to 30 years which have been recorded in a semi free-ranging population or troop.Adult males over 7 years old are quite large in stature with big narrow faces and there are usually four of them at the Apes’ Den and four nearby. Adult females over 4 years old are smaller than the males, they have unmistakeable black/grey beards on their chin and sexual swellings on their rumps.
Infants or Juveniles from the ages of 1 to 4 years old, male and female youngsters can often be seen playing together and annoying the adults with their cheeky antics. Often you might see monkeys, Male and Female carrying babies. These babies have black fur until they reach around four months old. They are extremely vulnerable, so please keep your distance as an adult with a baby can be quite aggressive towards anything they see as a threat.
Pouting : A warning to keep your distance.Tooth chattering : They do this to calm down and make-up after confrontations.Grooming : Keeps their fur clean and is a social activity. They spend about 20% of their day grooming each other. Some of the friendlier monkeys may even clamber up onto the shoulders of a human and start to groom their head.
A sight that can also be witnessed is during a stressful time or after a monkey panic, an adult may grab a hold of an infant, hold it against them and tooth-chatter. This behaviour, unique to Barbary macaques, is thought to help keep peace within the group.
Infant care: Babies are born every summer after five to six months’ gestation. Most group members can be seen playing with, grooming or resting with infants, regardless of their relationship to them. Often females are content to let other ‘aunts’ help care for the babies after the first few days. Look out for a common grouping of a baby, mother and ‘aunt’.
Male Barbary macaques are unusual amongst primates in that they take a friendly, close interest in infants. You can often see males carrying babies. Sometimes this communal infant care causes stress, you may see pouting, threats and tooth chattering when a mother disputes custody of her baby with an over enthusiastic baby-sitter.
Male macaques live between the ages or 15 to 17 years and females slightly longer 18 to 22 which is usually the case in most males and females in different species.
The site management record every birth and death along with giving each ape their own official name. In 1915 the government provided money to the Army to feed the monkeys to reduce the roaming and marauding that occurred. The responsibility for the monkeys has since been reverted to the Government of Gibraltar.
The monkeys often supplement their diet with a few wild plants and this can sometimes be witnessed as they forage in the early mornings. The Gibraltar Monkeys are used to people, so you can get quite close to them. Some may even approach you, but please do not touch them; monkeys will bite if they feel threatened or annoyed as they are still wild at heart.
When visiting the monkeys and you only see a few, be patient and look carefully at the cliff/trees and you will more than likely spot others going about their daily business. The spend over 30% of their day interacting with visitors, but please always remember that they are still semi-wild animals. They need time to rest and take part in other ‘monkey antics’, free from any interference.
Gibraltar monkeys (Barbary Macaques) display a variety of facial expression to show emotions. Females show rounded-mouth threats towards other females as a sign of aggression and dominance. They will also show their teeth for submission. Barbary macaques occasionally display relaxed, open-mouthed, play faces which are thought to express happiness.
Sounds are a crucial part of communication in all primates. Barbary macaques scream and grunt at other trespassing troops. They use a loud and very high-pitched “ah-ah” to warn troop members of a potential danger.
Mating calls from females during copulation have been shown to increase the likelihood of ejaculation in males. Barbary macaques are capable of recognising individuals by calls, and mothers can recognise their infants by their cries.
The young cry a string of high-pitched calls at dusk, presumably to find their mothers in sleeping clusters. Troops are familiar with the vocalisations of neighbouring troops as well and studies have shown that calls are learned through experience and different social groups may also use different dialects.
Gibraltar Monkeys are listed as endangered on the IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species. In Gibraltar, Morocco and Algeria they are a protected species. But are still in danger of local extinction in Morocco and Algeria.The greatest threat to them is habitat loss, predominantly for logging. As a result macaques are pushed farther up mountains into nutrient poor areas where survival is more difficult. Each year it is estimated that around 300 infants are taken out of Morocco for the pet trade. Barbary macaques are listed under Appendix II for the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)..
Visit the Everything Gibraltar website and learn more about Gibraltar Monkeys.
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