For Immediate Release Media Contact: Greg Borzo (312) 665-7106 gborzo@fieldmuseum.org General Information about The Field Museum: (312) 922-9410 Scientists use DNA to solve mystery of Gibraltar’s macaques Research will help manage populations of macaques, a threatened species of primate CHICAGO—After decades of speculation, the origin of Gibraltar’s famous Barbary macaques has been determined. The only free-ranging monkeys in all of Europe, Gibraltar’s 200 or so semi-wild macaques enjoy the run of the hillsides in this British territory – much to the delight of millions of tourists, as well as to the chagrin of some officials responsible for their management. There were not always, however, this many macaques on Gibraltar, which serves as a gateway to the Mediterranean Sea. In 1942, after the population dwindled to almost nothing, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered that their numbers be replenished due to a traditional belief that Britain would lose Gibraltar if the macaques there ever died out. The clandestine move was taken to bolster Britain’s morale during World War II. Ever since, scientists have wondered exactly where the macaques came from. Now, an analysis of mitochondrial DNA from 280 individual samples reveals that the macaques on Gibraltar descended from founders taken from forest fragments in both Morocco and Algeria. The embargoed research will be published in the Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on April 25, 2005. It will appear subsequently in PNAS’ print version at a date yet to be determined. “Our project was designed as a test case for conservation genetics,” said Robert D. Martin, a primatologist, Field Museum Provost, and co-author of the study. “The Gibraltar colony of Barbary macaques provided an ideal example of genetic isolation of a small population, which is now a regular occurrence among wild primate populations because of forest fragmentation. To our surprise, we found a relatively high level of genetic variability in the Gibraltar macaques. This is now explained by our conclusion that the population was founded with individuals from two genetically distinct populations in Algeria and Morocco.” Continue>>