Upper Rock Nature Reserve: A Management and Action Plan

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Barbary Macaques
gy only became clearer once culling ceased, with the transfer of management to the Gibraltar
Tourism Agency, after which the population levels rose considerably. In recent years, approximately
seventy-five animals have been culled as a result of a lack of demand for zoos or
wildlife parks to take the surplus animals, and also because of aggressive behaviour on the
part of some individuals.
In 1998 a group of macaques from the former Rock Gun/Princess Caroline’s group took
up residence in the Moorish Castle Estate area, remaining there as they were fed by residents.
A decision to cull was taken and about 19 animals were put down.
In 1999 the increase in population levels resulted in a group establishing themselves at
Catalan Bay outside the Caleta Hotel. They remained there because of the frequent illegal
feeding on the part of tourists and the general public and because of lack of enforcement of
the feeding laws. After all attempts to relocate/export the group had been exhausted, the
decision to cull them was taken, and the twenty-four animals were regrettably put down.
In 2003 a section of the Middle Hill group again settled down at Catalan Bay outside the
Caleta Hotel, as a result of enticement with food items and the presence of the Hotel’s refuse
bins, that provided the macaques with additional titbits. The macaque management officials
where frequently called out to tackle the problem, but the group would descend on a daily
basis. They would also frequently make their way across to the sand slopes above Sandy
Bay, where workers were dismantling the MOD area of the water catchment’s corrugated
metal sheets. The problem came to a head in late July, a period when the beaches and the
Hotel are full to the brim. This provided the macaques with the greatest interaction with people.
There were frequent letters in the Gibraltar Chronicle complaining about this issue,
especially by the residents of the area beside the hotel. This lead to the controversial decision
on the part of the Ministry for Tourism, who instructed the Gibraltar Veterinary Clinic to
cull the animals. The Ape Management officials and the GONHS were not fully informed. By
the time GONHS had intervened, 27 macaques had been culled, including whole family lineages
and mature animals, leaving many females with young on the basis that they were
cute. This endeavour was illegal. It was not licensed under the Nature Protection Ordinance
and was carried out at random, not respecting the family lineage and hierarchy. It also
destroyed very valuable, ongoing data collection and the work of two postgraduate students
from Zurich University.
This action led to cancellation, in protest, of the visit of the co-organiser and speaker Prof.
Bob Martin to the Barbary Macaque conference in November 2003. In a press statement,
Prof. Martin complained about the action taken by the Gibraltar authorities against the group
of macaques that had been the focus of an ongoing study for more than two decades. This
major setback resulted in a loss of confidence in academic students visiting Gibraltar, an
embarrassment to GONHS, particularly on the eve of the conference, and the resulting financial
implications, which include £2500 per annum in lab fees.
14.4.2 Re-location
The first option to be considered, and the most desirable is exportation. The ‘Martin Plan’
favoured this, with the possibility of exporting macaques to zoological parks in North America.
Another possibility was to re-introduce some animals back into the wild in Morocco (Martin
1997). This is a costly affair, which involves a great deal of time and trouble, but the rewards
would outweigh the problems. GONHS embarked in such a project in 1999 when the
Farringdon group was captured and shipped in a specially chartered Antonov plane to the
Wildpark, Daun, in Germany, (see Fig. 1). The cost was borne by the Gibraltar Government
and received much publicity in the local press, but at £32,000 it was expensive, and the public
purse could ill afford to spend such large sums regularly.
Figure 3. Barbary
macaques from Gibraltar,
foraging in their new
home at Wildpark, Daun,
Germany.
Upper Rock Nature Reserve: A Management and Action Plan