2009/07/17
DEFORESTATION in the mountains of Morocco and Algeria spells doom for North Africa’s iconic Barbary Ape, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) warned this week .
Growing human settlements in the region’s Middle and Tellian Atlas mountains, with resultant overgrazing and uncontrolled logging, are destroying the natural habitat of the creatures, it said in a statement.
Barbary Apes – which are actually not apes, but tailless monkeys or macaques – are better known from the population that inhabits Gibraltar, the British overseas territory on the north side of the narrow strait that separates Africa from Europe.
Legend has it that when the so-called apes quit The Rock, so too will the British, and for many years the local army regiment kept their numbers up to garrison strength. Biologists believe their original home, however, is North Africa, and it is here that the macaques face an uncertain future.
“Recently, the Barbary Macaques in the Middle Atlas have been observed stripping the bark from trees and sucking flowers to get the sap, behaviour uncommon until a few years ago.
“The Moroccan government has been collaborating with IUCN to discover the reason for this shift in behaviour. The IUCN ... visited the area and found that the degradation of the cedar forest and the scarce access to water resources ... were to blame for the change in behaviour,” the conservation organisation said. The loss of significant numbers of Barbary Macaques could have wide repercussions throughout the region’s ecosystem.
IUCN Centre for Mediterranean Co-operation director Margarita Astrálaga said: “Macaques are vital to disperse seeds in the forest. Without them the very composition of the forest would change dramatically.
“Its disappearance could also affect the economic situation in Morocco, as Barbary Macaques attract a large number of tourists every year,” she said.
Forest conservation in the region was essential to guarantee the future of the Barbary Macaque, already listed as endangered by the IUCN.
The macaques live in troops of between 10 and 30 individuals in mountain forests of cedar, pine and oak. According to wikipedia, the species was once widespread, but its numbers have now dwindled to between 12000 and 21000 individuals.
The IUCN said Barbary Macaque conservation depended on the species’ successful integration into initiatives dealing with forest degradation, rural poverty, land tenure, governance and other causes of habitat loss in the two North African countries. — Sapa
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