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[Andrew Hund <axh69 AT po.cwru.edu>]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/dispatch/story/0,12978,1083247,00.html
Monkey death on the rock

Thursday November 13, 2003
The Guardian

A top primatologist has pulled out of field research in Gibraltar, in 
protest at the culling of a group of Barbary macaques that had been part of 
a long-term conservation study.

Robert Martin, vice-president of the Chicago Field Museum of Natural 
History, also boycotted an international macaque conference held last week 
in Gibraltar - even though he was one of its organisers. "The culling 
without warning of half of our study group has effectively terminated our 
research project. There is no point in continuing," says Martin.

The couple of hundred semi-wild Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus) that 
populate the Rock of Gibraltar are the only non-human primates living 
outside captivity in Europe. The population provides an ideal model for 
ecologists studying the genetic effects of habitat fragmentation - a key 
question in primate ecology and conservation biology.

Eight years ago, Martin, then at the University of Zürich, began monitoring 
reproduction and genetic variability in a 50-strong macaque colony on 
Gibraltar's Middle Hill. The study was meant to provide guidelines for the 
conservation management of threatened wild macaque populations in Algeria 
and Morocco.

But in July, half of the macques in Martin's study group were killed after 
some were found vandalising property and attacking children. "There was a 
public health risk, so we had no choice," says Mark Pizarro, a surgeon at 
Gibraltar's veterinary clinic.

Martin says the monkeys would not have outgrown their habitat if the 
government had not ignored timely scientific advice. "I submitted as early 
as 1997 detailed proposals on effective population control by means of 
contraception, but nothing much was done," he says.
The Gibraltar Ornithological and Natural History Society, which recently 
took over management of the colony, tried to prevent a cull. "There was too 
much public pressure on the government to take action," says John Cortes, 
general secretary of the society, whose intervention persuaded the 
government not to have the entire group killed.

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