Dr Larry Sawchuk and colleague Dr Lianne Tripp have co-written Monkey Tales, which looks at how the macaques – the only European monkey population, which will also be featured in Sunday’s night’s episode of Seven Worlds, One Planet, Sir David Attenborough’s latest BBC wildlife series – arrived in the first place, as well as considering the history of their coexistence alongside the human population. And they also took some time to dispel some myths along the way – not least the apocryphal tale suggesting the monkeys first arrived via a secret tunnel under the sea from Africa. The former Prime Minister, concerned after learning the number of monkeys in Gibraltar had dwindled to just six, sent a directive to the Colonial Secretary on September 2, 1944, in which he said: “The establishment of the apes on Gibraltar should be twenty-four, and every effort should be made to reach this number as soon as possible and maintain it thereafter.”
These days, the population is estimated to be rather higher – roughly 200 – and speaking on the Rock, close to the cable car which carries legions of tourists on an hourly basis, Dr Sawchuk said this was partly thanks to the efforts of the wartime leader.
Dr Sawchuk, 73, a biological anthropologist at the University of Toronto in Canada, told Express.co.uk: “The macaques, also known as Macaca sylvanus, rock apes, or Gibraltar macaques, are a very special group.
“It’s probably the only group in the world where you have documentation that spans three centuries.
“As you can imagine, they’ve been here since the British took Gibraltar in 1704. And it’s a remarkable legacy.”
Winston Churchill took an active interest in the welfare of Gibraltar’s monkeys (Image: GETTY)
Dr Larry Sawchuk is co-author of Monkey Tales, about Gibraltar’s monkeys (Image: Daily Express/Gibraltar National Museum)
Winston Churchill believed very strongly in the fact that if the monkeys were ever to leave that this would jeopardise the holding of Gibraltar
One of the most famous legends about Gibraltar is the idea that if the monkeys ever leave, the Rock will cease to be British – and Dr Sawchuk said it was one Sir Winston took notice of.
He added: “Winston Churchill believed very strongly in the fact that if the monkeys were ever to leave that this would jeopardise the holding of Gibraltar.
“But also it was a question of morale – morale in terms of not only troops that were stationed here in Gib, but also the people, so again it is a very interesting phenomenon of the human agent making sure that the monkeys remained on the Rock.”
Alongside Dr Tripp, Dr Sawchuk, who has been coming to Gibraltar since 1978 to study the creatures, had the previous day launched the book at the academics’ joint talk at the seventh annual Gibunco Literary Festival.
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Dr Lianne Tripp said some Gibraltarians may have kept monkeys as pets (Image: Daily Express)
Explaining his interest in the subject, he said: “It’s the human/macaque interface.
“It’s two species living, coexisting in the same space and the same time, living side by side.”
Dr Tripp explained she had been particularly taken by the picture used for the front cover of Monkey Tales, depicting a macaque casually sat on a park bench in the centre of Gibraltar, oblivious to passing humans, and was curious to know what he was thinking.
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A Barbary macaque on the roof of a security post on the Rock (Image: Daily Express)
The Barbary macaque, or Macaca sylvanus (Image: GETTY)
The 35-year-old, who completed her PhD in Biological Anthropology under the supervision of Prof Sawchuk at the University of Toronto in 2017, said: “Up until we wrote the book, among the scholars I think the favourite theory was that the monkeys were brought over by the British military for sport, for something to do, for entertainment.
“But as we went through the historical documents, we saw, cropping up time and time again, there were notes about macaques as pets.
“Either Gibraltarians were keeping them as pets or that they were being sold at the market here and perhaps they had escaped.
Facts about Gibraltar’s monkeys (Image: GETTY)
“We think that one reason we see macaques here in Gibraltar is that they were here for trade and maybe some escaped, and it wasn’t necessarily purposeful that they were initially here.
“We at least have documentation of the macaques being here at the beginning of the British period in 1704, but there’s a good chance that they preceded that with the Moorish period.
“So it is a British story but it may not have started with the British.”
The Rock of Gibraltar is home to an estimated 200 monkeys (Image: GETTY)
As for the infamous tunnel story, Dr Tripp said: “There’s quite a bit of discourse in the book about the interaction between the human and the macaque and how that has existed over a few hundred years in terms of the military taking them under their care and then the civilians.”
“I think everybody in Gibraltar knows the story and as a visitor with some friends you always hear the story about how the macaques came through this subterranean tunnel to Gibraltar from North Africa and that’s a story that has been ingrained in folklore and there are many other interesting stories that we have come across.”
Monkey Tales is published by the University of Gibraltar while Seven Worlds, One Planet is on BBC One at 6.15pm. To buy a copy click here