Thirty of Gibraltar’s most disruptive monkeys are being sent to a safari park in Scotland to liven up things there.
A considerable number of the wild Barbary macaques there have taken to looting apartments and raiding bins.
Five years ago, a cull was carried out after a pack of macaques ripped through town, vandalising hotel rooms. When things got out of hand again, authorities sought another solution, negotiating instead with the Blair Drummond Safari Park near Stirling.
Many of the 200 resident macaques were tagged with GPS collars to monitor how far they roamed from their nature reserve to mount food raids in residential areas.
The most unruly ones were trapped in August and September and will be on their chartered flight to Scotland on Tuesday. Their new quarters there is a large enclosure with trees, a large rocky mound for climbing and a heated shelter area for bad weather.
Since they were apprehended, the 30 monkeys - 11 males and 19 females – have been quarantined in a special holding area in the greater nature reserve.
The Barbary macaques were likely introduced to Gibraltar from Africa in the 18th century by British soldiers. Barbary macaques are highly adaptable and often live at high altitudes in their natural environment in North Africa, said Eric Shaw, the head of Gibraltar's monkey management team.
Local folklore holds that Gibraltar would cease to be British if the monkeys were to leave.
