Winston Churchill ordered the restocking of Barbary apes at Gibraltar in 1942. The animals are more precisely called Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus), but “Barbary ape” is the established common name and the canonical quiz answer.
During World War II, Gibraltar’s macaque population had fallen to roughly seven animals. Churchill ordered replacements brought from North Africa, where the species is native, particularly Morocco and Algeria. The population was considered important not only as a distinctive feature of the Rock but also because of a local belief that Gibraltar would remain under British rule as long as its apes remained there.
Despite their nickname, Gibraltar’s animals are monkeys, not true apes: they have tails that are extremely short or absent, but their anatomy and evolutionary classification place them among macaques. They are also famous for being Europe’s only population of wild monkeys. Later genetic research found that Gibraltar’s macaques have ancestry from both Morocco and Algeria, reflecting repeated introductions and exchanges across the Strait of Gibraltar.