The Barbados Green Monkey

Green monkeys arrived on Barbados around 1650, brought from Senegal and the Gambia on slave ships, and the population that established here has been isolated for roughly three hundred and fifty years, long enough for measurable differences from the West African founders. There are thought to be tens of thousands on an island of four hundred and thirty square kilometres, and they are everywhere: gullies, gardens, hotel grounds and the roadside, raiding fruit trees and crops. That makes them a genuine agricultural problem as well as the island's most visible wild animal, and the relationship islanders have with them is not sentimental.

What you actually see

• Troops in the gullies - the wooded ravines that run across the island.
• The wildlife reserve - the most reliable place to see them close.
• Welchman Hall Gully - troops passing through morning and evening.
• Hotel grounds - where they raid at first light.

When to go

December to April is the dry season. Early morning and late afternoon are when troops move and feed. The wildlife reserve's afternoon feeding is the most reliable single opportunity.

Honest expectations

They are wild animals and a crop pest, not an attraction, and feeding them makes both problems worse; hotels ask guests not to and are right. They will take food from hands and bags and can bite. Sightings anywhere other than the reserve are luck. Culling has been used to manage numbers, which visitors sometimes find surprising.

Nearby

The wildlife reserve and Welchman Hall Gully are the reliable sites.