Stamps Wiki:EUROPA2021/10

Gibraltar

Europa 2021 - Barbary Macaques II

2 February 2021

The Royal Gibraltar Post Office's Philatelic Bureau released a set of stamps featuring the Barbary Macaques, classified as endangered by the IUCN. The Macaques are Gibraltar’s most popular tourist attraction and the only wild monkey population found in Europe.

Perhaps Gibraltar's most important tourist attraction, the Barbary Macaques are normally found in North Africa, but their presence in Gibraltar probably dates from the early days of the British garrison when it is presumed that they were imported, inevitably finding the rough limestone cliffs and scrub vegetation a congenial habitat. In fact, many legends have grown up around them. One is that they travelled from their native Morocco via a subterranean tunnel starting at St Michael's Cave leading down underneath the Strait of Gibraltar.