The green monkey was brought here (Barbados) from Africa some 350 years ago. The species now differs from its African ancestors.

There are lots of monkeys in Barbados, living in troops with watchmen and a hierarchy system. One troop lives in the trees about 50 yards from my house and at night you can hear the females complaining when the males come home drunk or whatever.

Barbadian folklore tells of funeral rituals where they all march with a leaf in their mouths. According to the "A-Z of Barbados Heritage", "Monkeys are also alleged to hold funerals for their dead and bury them. While there is no evidence of this, it is certainly odd that with such a sizeable population skeletons are so rarely found."

I have only ever seen one semi-buried skull in the woods around here.

Monkeys are regarded as a pest and there is a Bds$15 per tail bounty. A French-Canadian has set up a medical research facility here and makes a lot of money shipping them to England (about 1000 per year) where they are killed and cut up to make smallpox vaccine (I think) for humans like George Bush and Tony Blair.

There's something ironic in that but I can't put my finger on it.