Do we know anything more about what the monkeys are doing in Gibraltar? Are they affecting other wildlife or is the cull simply because of their messing with the hotel guests? It seems rather an extreme measure.

Rather than change your travel plans (does anyone bother travelling to Gibraltar anyway?) if you care about this situation it would be a better idea to go and stay there, find out the true facts, and protest loudly and stubbornly to anyone with any influence.

If you're not there, no-one's going to listen to you. No?

I was just in Gibraltar twice in the last two weeks and I definitely do think it's worth visiting for a day. The Barbary Apes are a central part of Gibraltar's tourism, as everyone who tours the Upper Rock takes pictures with them and is fascinated by how chill they (usually) are with humans in such close proximity.

The problem is that this "attraction" has become hazardous to humans, akin to if Gibraltar were suddenly prone to rock slides. The apes are procreating more and more, and are beginning to migrate further down the rock, into human-occupied territory. In pilfering through garbage cans and climbing into open windows, the apes are just being apes, but this of course, scares the crap out of many people, one would assume especially out-of-towners. Plus, there are overly aggressive monkeys--our guide told us that just that morning, a monkey had bitten a little girl. A rare occurrence, but one that could be a big issue considering that the apes can carry hepatitis or salmonella. All it takes is a few publicized instances like that and people start to freak, tourism suffers, and so-called action must be taken.

That said, it seems to me like Gibraltar is jumping the gun a bit in using such extreme measures in trying to get this problem "under control." I asked about the culling and our guide said the people of Gibraltar are very against the idea and are petitioning for more humane ways of controlling the monkey population. So, this story isn't over yet.