Mystery of Barbary ape at Eamhain Mhacha

“Kilimanjaro is a snow-covered mountain 19,700 feet high, and is said to be the highest mountain in Africa,” wrote Ernest Hemingway. “Close to the western summit, there is the dried and frozen carcass of a leopard. No one has explained what the leopard was doing at that altitude.”

Visiting Eamhain Mhacha last week, I stumbled on a similar mystery. The skull of an African monkey was found there 40 years ago. No one has explained what the monkey was doing at that latitude.