Bill and Tommy Bruein, age 10, of Phoenix, Arizona, for their question:

Do apes really live on Gibraltar?

The Barbary ape does indeed live on the Rock of Gibraltar    and if the British have any say in the matter, his kinfolk will survive there forever. Bands of his mischievous relatives are allowed freedom to roam    and provided with free food and free medical care. Surely Europe's only wild member of the monkey clan deserves the best of treatment. However, the British have a second reason to wish him well.

There is an old superstition that his fortress to the Mediterranean will be governed by England as long as they share it with the Barbary apes. It dates back to a time when these rowdy monkeys were disturbed and warned the garrison of an unexpected Spanish attack. Actually, the co owner of Gibraltar is not a true ape, though he has no tail. He is a large and powerful macaque, a cousin of the cute little rhesus monkey. It is thought that in the remote past this shaggy blondish monkey was taken to the Rock from his native haunts in southeast Africa.