Gibraltar’s Gibraltar Nature Reserve (previously the Upper Rock Nature Reserve) is a protected nature reserve that encompasses more than 40% of the country’s land area. It was created as the Upper Rock Nature Reserve in 1993 and was recently enlarged in 2013 under the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s category Ia (strict nature reserve). It is well-known for its semi-wild population of Barbary macaques and serves as a critical stopover for migrating birds.

Flora

Gibraltar boasts about 600 different blooming plant species. Tall shrubs such as wild olive, Mediterranean buckthorn, lentisc, Osyris, and terebinth, as well as lesser bushes such as shrubby scorpion vetch, spiny broom, teline, wild jasmine, shrubby germander, and felty germander, make up the maquis, or dense Mediterranean scrub. 

Parts of the maquis are also home to the bay laurel and dwarf fan palm. Intermediate periwinkle, Butcher’s broom, Italian arum, and Bear’s breech are among the understory plants. Plants including paper-white narcissus, common asphodel, huge Tangier fennel, wild gladiolus, Galactites, and mallow bindweed grow in the maquis firebreaks.

Fauna – Mammals

The red fox, European rabbit, and mouse-eared bat are examples of mammals. The reserve is home to the Barbary macaques, which are the most well-known inhabitants. Barbary macaques, Europe’s sole wild monkey species, the famed Rock apes, have been reintroduced to Gibraltar. 

The macaques may be found at the Ape’s Den, near the middle cable car station, and near the Great Siege Tunnels. In 2012, there were between 200 and 250 macaques residing in the natural reserve. Feeding the monkeys is prohibited, however this restriction is not usually enforced. As a result, some of them have turned hostile and reliant on human food.

Fauna – Birds

At the mouth of the Strait, the Rock of Gibraltar is a conspicuous promontory that attracts migrating birds throughout the passage seasons. The vegetation atop the Rock, unique in southern Iberia, offers a temporary home for many species of migrating birds that stop to rest and eat before continuing migration for their journey over the sea and desert. 

They return in the spring to restock their supplies before continuing their treks to Western Europe, which might take them as far as Greenland or Russia.

BirdLife International has designated The Rock as an Important Bird Area because it serves as a migratory bottleneck, or choke point, for an estimated 250,000 raptors that cross the Strait each year, as well as a nesting ground for Barbary partridges and lesser kestrels.