A visit to Gibraltar is the
key to a rich, diverse and fascinating world of nature. In a den high on the Rock live
Gibraltar's most famous residents, the Barbary Apes, the only wild
primates in all Europe. Friendly, charming and inquisitive, the apes have lived on the
Rock for centuries. Legend says that when the apes leave, Gibraltar will cease to be
British.
Gibraltar is home to a wealth of plant life - palms and
jacaranda, lavender and jasmine, clematis, honeysuckle, geraniums and bougainvillaea live
side by side with many rarer species including two, Gibraltar Candytuft and Gibraltar Sea
Lavender, named after the Rock itself.
In the seas around Gibraltar the diversity of life is just as great. Sail into the bay
and, more often than not, your boat will be followed by flying fish and schools of leaping
dolphin.
Each Spring and Autumn, the Rock becomes a staging post for hundreds of thousands of
migrating birds flying between their breeding grounds in Northern Europe and their
wintering areas in tropical Africa. Resident species such as Peregrine Falcons, Blue Rock
Thrush and Barbary Partridge are joined by owls and eagles, harriers and hoopoes, buzzards
and black kytes.
Great efforts are made to ensure that the Rock's natural environment is kept as
unspoilt and beautiful for future visitors as it is today. A large area of the upper rock
has been designated as a nature reserve - and work is well underway to transform
Gibraltar's famous public park, the Alameda gardens, into a new
botanical garden to rival the best in the world.