Rock of Gibraltar may have originated from an escape of North African animals transported to Spain; it is also possible that the original Gibraltar macaques are a remnant of populations that are known to have spread throughout Southern Europe during the Pliocene, up to 5.5 million years ago. Some animals of the Rock have been reintroduced by the Alameda Wildlife Conservation Park who have three Barbary macaques. The Rock of Gibraltar, at the head of the Strait, is a prominent headland, which accumulates migrating birds during the passage periods. The vegetation on the Rock, unique in southern Iberia, provides a temporary home for
Gibraltar Museum on The Rock because there was no museum, resulting in the first known adult Neanderthal skull (the so-called Gibraltar skull) went to the Natural History Museum in London. This was the second Neanderthal fossil to be found and was excavated in 1848 at Forbes' Quarry on the north face of the Rock of Gibraltar. The first known collection established in Gibraltar was due to the Reverend John White, chaplain at Gibraltar from 1756 to 1774. Encouraged by his elder brother Gilbert White, he collected zoological specimens which he studied and sent to England. He took advice from Giovanni Antonio Scopoli