Apes rule the rock.Legend has it that as tong as the Barbary apes roam the Rock of Gibraltar, it will stay under British rule--as it has been since 1783. The apes are actually tailless monkeys, and there are now more than 200 of them on Gibraltar, a British territory adjoining the southern coast of Spain. They charm tourists out of potato chips and candy, preening in front of cameras and mimicking photographers. But they'll also snatch cameras, purses, and ice cream cones An ice cream cone or cornet is a cone-shaped pastry, usually made of a wafer similar in texture to a waffle, in which ice cream is served, allowing it to be eaten without a bowl or spoon. . Gibraltar residents know that grocery bags can touch off a monkey stampede stam·pede n. 1. A sudden frenzied rush of panic-stricken animals. 2. A sudden headlong rush or flight of a crowd of people. 3. , and hotels post signs warning guests to keep their windows shut. Peter Caruana Peter Richard Caruana QC (born 15 October 1956) is a Gibraltarian politician, and has been Chief Minister of Gibraltar since 1996, when his party, the Gibraltar Social Democrats, first came to power. His party was re-elected to office in 2000, 2003 and 2007. , Chief Minister of Gibraltar The Chief Minister of Gibraltar is the leader of the largest party in the Gibraltar Parliament, and is formally appointed by the Governor of Gibraltar, representative of the British Crown. , says the government is trying to deal with unruly monkeys. But the underlying problem is that there are too many of them, and no one wants to see them culled. So, for the time being, the apes will continue to delight in disrupting the occasional swimming party by jumping in the pool with their human neighbors. |
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