Jul 28 – New Natural Habitats For Monkeys In Upper Rock Area
Monkeys in the Upper Rock now have five new drinking ponds, shaded areas and places to forage for food now that the undergrowth has been cleared.
The aim is to lure the monkeys away from the town area, and these facilities have been installed by the Department of Environment to help mimic their natural habitats.
Dr John Cortes, Minister for the Environment, said tourists would like to see the monkeys in their natural habitat.
He said: “This is keeping the monkeys on the rock and reducing the negative impact of them in the town."
Dr Cortes added: “You would have heard many fewer complaints over the last six to nine months than before. It is the different facilities and the work of the staff and environmental officers, which is keeping the monkeys up here.
“It is always going to happen, monkeys are wild animals who decide where they go so there are going to be occasions when they are in the built up areas, but you can see the efforts to keep them up here.
“If you were to go to their natural home in Morocco, you would see monkeys near a natural stream or watering hole, foraging the trees for food and nuts.
“The macaques are behaving naturally - as they should be.”
The dense undergrowth has been cleared to encouraging the macaques to forage for their food. They forage for different plants and flowers, roots, wild garlic, onion bulbs, and even insects such as spiders and ants and the odd lizard.
Monkey Management’s Dr Eric Shaw explained: “If it takes their fancy and they want to go to Casemates, we cannot stop them. What stops them is that their environment is better - they don’t want to associate with us in the same way that we don’t necessarily want to associate with them.
“We have created their own pools, placed their food under the canopy for them, so that the monkeys can have their own pool party any time they want and we won’t spoil it – it’s just their natural environment.”
He adds that the monkeys are of great value to Gibraltar, especially since 1954 when the Queen was photographed with them, bringing tourists from all over the world to see them.
{fcomment}
