Gibraltar's Barbary Macaques: What the 2026 Research Changed

17 April 2026 Last checked 2026-04-17

About 230 macaques live on the Rock. A 2026 study found they eat soil to offset the junk food visitors give them, which settles the argument about feeding.

A study published in 2026 found that Gibraltar's macaques eat soil, and that the ones eating the most soil are the ones being fed the most crisps, chocolate and ice cream by tourists. A group with no visitor contact did not do it at all. That is the clearest evidence yet that feeding them does real damage, and it is why the rest of this guide is blunt about it.

There are about 230 Barbary macaques on the Rock, living in six troops with group sizes from roughly 25 to 70, according to the Gibraltar Ornithological and Natural History Society, which manages them. Each troop has its own territory, its own hierarchy and its own attitude to the thousands of people who walk through its home every day.

One correction to the way they are usually described, including by an earlier version of this page. They are the only free living monkeys in Europe, but the Natural History Museum notes that they are given food and water daily and are managed by local organisations, so calling them simply wild overstates it. They are a managed population in a nature reserve.

The numbers do not quite agree, and here is why

If you read around, you will find different figures. They are worth setting out rather than picking one.

The 230 figure comes from the body that runs the annual census, so it is the one we use. The group count varies because troops split and merge, and because a study tracking behaviour may count differently from a census. Nobody is wrong, exactly. The honest answer is about 230 animals in six or so troops.

They are monkeys, and they are endangered

Two things people get wrong. The first is the name: they are called Barbary apes, but they are macaques, and macaques are monkeys. They have no visible tail, only a short vestigial one that does nothing for climbing, which is where the confusion comes from.

The second is their status. The Natural History Museum gives the species as Endangered on the IUCN Red List, first listed as such in 2008 after the population fell about 40% in forty years, from more than 20,000 in the 1970s. GONHS's own page still describes the species as vulnerable, an earlier category. We follow the Museum here, but we flag the disagreement rather than hide it.

The wild population is now only in north Africa: roughly 8,000 to 9,000 in Morocco and 1,500 to 3,500 in Algeria, concentrated in cedar and oak forest in the Rif and Atlas mountains. Habitat loss is the main pressure, with the illegal pet trade behind it. So the 230 on the Rock are a meaningful fraction of a species in trouble, which changes how you should think about a selfie.

How they got here

Nobody knows for certain. Their origin is genuinely uncertain because there were repeated introductions and the early records are poor.

What the genetics show is that their mitochondrial DNA matches north African populations, in both Morocco and Algeria, which means animals were brought over at some point and more than once. An introduction during the Islamic period is plausible. The British garrison also brought animals in. Both can be true.

Barbary macaques did once range across Europe on their own, with fossils as far north as England and remains in Germany from around 60,000 years ago, so a relict native population is not absurd. But the DNA points to introduction rather than survival, and the folk story about a tunnel from Lower St Michael's Cave to Morocco is a story.

Churchill, 1942, and the number 24

The population fell to about seven animals by 1942, and the legend that Gibraltar stays British only while the macaques remain suddenly looked testable. Churchill intervened, and the written target that came out of it was 24 animals. We cover that episode properly in Churchill's order that saved Gibraltar's apes.

One detail to correct, because this page had it backwards. The British Army took formal responsibility for the troop from 1915, and that stewardship ran until 1991, when the garrison was run down and responsibility passed to the Government of Gibraltar and in time to GONHS. The regiment involved is the Royal Gibraltar Regiment: it was the Gibraltar Regiment until the Royal title was granted with effect from 28 April 1999, not the other way round.

Who looks after them now

The Government of Gibraltar's ape management page sets out the arrangement: GONHS and the Gibraltar Veterinary Clinic work under agreement with the government, GONHS managing the animals and the clinic providing veterinary care.

The detail is more thorough than most visitors imagine. Animals are periodically caught for health checks and body measurements, given tattoo numbers and microchips, and photographed so every individual is catalogued. GONHS runs an annual census tracking population and breeding success. The troops get fresh water daily plus vegetables, fruit and seeds to supplement what they forage.

That last point matters for the feeding rule. They are already fed, properly, on a controlled diet. Anything you hand over is on top of a diet that is managed, which is the opposite of helping.

The law, and a figure worth checking

Feeding the macaques is illegal. The penalty is where sources part company, so here is both.

The government's own ape management page states the penalty for feeding as 500 GBP. Most other sources, including RTÉ's report on the soil study and the Wikipedia article on the Gibraltar population, give a maximum of 4,000 GBP. An earlier version of this page printed 4,000 as fact.

We cannot reconcile them from published sources. The 500 figure is on a government page, which ought to settle it, and the 4,000 figure is repeated more widely and may be a maximum under a different provision. Either way the number is large enough that the point stands, and the real reason not to do it is the soil eating rather than the fine.

What the soil eating tells you

This is the part no other guide to the Rock will tell you, because it is new. Researchers from Oxford, Cambridge and Paris-Sorbonne, working with Gibraltar's environment department, studied the troops from August 2022 to April 2024 and recorded geophagy, the deliberate eating of soil, at unusually high rates compared with other macaque populations.

The pattern is the giveaway. Soil eating peaked in summer, when visitor numbers peak. The individuals doing it most were those consuming the most tourist junk food. A troop with no contact with visitors did not show the behaviour. The researchers' reading is that the soil carries micro-organisms that help restore gut bacteria disrupted by the junk, which they describe as an early form of self medication. That mechanism is a hypothesis, not proven.

The animals are medicating themselves against what visitors give them. There is no gentler way to put it.

The government page makes the same point in plainer terms: human food disrupts their diet and can cause diseases including diabetes.

Daily life on the Rock

Troops run on a strict hierarchy under an alpha male, and the social structure is not decoration. It determines who eats first and who gets groomed.

A day starts at dawn, moving from the sleeping site to forage. They are omnivores: leaves, olives, roots, seeds and flowers, plus snails and worms, and adults have been recorded catching rabbits and chicks. Grooming takes hours and is the social glue, removing parasites and maintaining alliances.

The thing that makes them unusual among primates is shared infant care. Adults of both sexes look after all the young in the troop rather than only their own, which the Natural History Museum calls alloparental care, and the males are far more involved with infants than in most primate species.

What they actually do to visitors

They have had centuries to study us and have reached firm conclusions. Humans carry food in bags. Therefore bags are interesting.

The bag snatch is the common one, usually by a juvenile or a low ranking adult, and it is quick. The shoulder sit is the signature move: a macaque leaps up and perches there while someone else takes the photograph. Both are routine for the animals and neither is a sign of affection.

Nervous visitors seem to attract more attention than relaxed ones, which is probably about posture and sudden movement rather than anything mystical. The rules are simple: bags closed, no visible food, no sudden movements, no touching. Feeding is the offence the government page sets out explicitly; touching and teasing them are widely stated to be prohibited too, though we could not confirm the penalty for those from an official source.

Where to see them, and the cable car problem

The most important practical change since this guide was first written: the cable car is shut. It closed in November 2025 for a full reconstruction of both stations and the system, with reopening expected around 2027 and no confirmed date published. An earlier version of this page told you to take it to the top, and to find macaques at the top station. Neither works now. Our cable car status guide tracks it.

Getting up now means a licensed taxi or minibus tour, or walking, which takes about an hour and a half to two hours. Private vehicles are not allowed inside the Upper Rock Nature Reserve. Our walking times guide gives the realistic figures.

One caution on the Mediterranean Steps. The route was closed by a rockfall in late May 2026 and reports since then disagree about whether it has fully reopened. Check the current position with the nature reserve before you plan a morning around it, because the alternative is a long walk back.

Early morning and late afternoon remain the best times. Troops are active, the light is better, and the cruise passengers have either not arrived or already gone.

Photographing them

They are indifferent to cameras, so a telephoto lens is not needed. The animals will be closer than you want rather than further away.

Patience beats pursuit. Sit near a troop and they carry on around you, which is how you get grooming, play fighting and nursing rather than another shoulder portrait. No flash, no sudden movements for a reaction shot, and nothing dangled for a pose.

What happens next

Population control is part of the management, because the Rock has a finite carrying capacity and troops that outgrow it range into town looking for food, which creates conflict with residents.

The longer term pressures are habitat and climate. The scrubland vegetation they forage on is sensitive to changing rainfall, and the species is already in decline across its north African range. The Gibraltar troop is small, managed and closely watched, which is both its protection and its limit.

The legend says that when the macaques go, the British follow. In a town of 37,936 people, the more useful observation is that about 230 monkeys are the reason a great many visitors come at all, and the only thing being asked of those visitors is to keep their crisps in the bag.

Visiting the Upper Rock

The Upper Rock Nature Reserve is open daily and the attractions need a ticket, while the walking trails themselves are free. The ticket covers the Apes' Den, St Michael's Cave, the Great Siege Tunnels and the Moorish Castle among others. The Rock of Gibraltar guide covers the trails and sites in full.

Border arrangements changed on 15 July 2026, with routine passport checks at the land crossing ended and controls moved to the airport and port. The FCDO entry requirements page is the current reference, and British visitors should note that time here now counts towards the Schengen 90 days in 180 allowance.

Where to stay

Victory Suites is on Devils Tower Road, a few minutes from the airport and within walking distance of the town, which matters more than usual while the cable car is out and the Rock is reached on foot or by taxi. An early start is the difference between a quiet troop and a crowded one.

We run 100+ apartments in Gibraltar and list on 300+ booking channels, with rates in GBP. Book direct through Victory Suites or message us if you want advice on timing a morning on the Upper Rock.