Message from the fourth monkey
Monkeys in Gibraltar have come up with a tactic to deal with the consequences of too much junk — eating mud
Nature is healing, said far too many captions five-six years ago. Nature will have its revenge on humanity in the form of disasters, pestilence or even tentacle monsters, says the eco-horror genre. One can imagine many such correctives, but perhaps there’s still room for a little humour and irony in the dialogue between man and nature. And who better to deliver this gentle message than mankind’s own mischievous cousins.
Monkeys in Gibraltar don’t hesitate to eat the junk food that people keep offering them, from soft drinks to chocolate bars. The monkeys have also come up with a tactic to deal with the consequences of too much junk — eating mud to avoid upset stomachs. Junk food can apparently disturb the microbes in their digestive tracts, and consuming soil may help counter this. But there’s no guarantee the soil itself isn’t polluted, so for any ice-cream aficionados getting ideas from reading this, “human see, human do” would not be advisable.
The problem is one of enforcement; tourists aren’t actually supposed to feed the monkeys. The broader message — read it as being about unhealthy habits, consumerism or a hundred other things — is unsubtle. And perhaps, the image of the three wise monkeys, symbolising the maxim “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil”, needs a fourth member: “Eat no evil”.
