The Barbary macaque (Macaca sylvanus) is a macaque species native to the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, along with a small introduced population in Gibraltar. It is the type species of the genus Macaca. From the Early Pliocene to the Late Pleistocene, until around 85-40,000 years ago, it was widely distributed in Europe. Today, the Barbary macaques in Gibraltar are the only Old World monkeys in Europe. About 300 individuals live on the Rock of Gibraltar. This population appears to be stable or increasing, while the North African population is declining.

The diet of the Barbary macaque consists primarily of plants and insects. Males play an atypical role in rearing young. Because of uncertain paternity, males are integral to raising all infants. Generally, both sexes and all ages contribute in alloparental care of the young. Males live to around 25 years old while females may live up to 30 years.

Taxonomy and phylogeny

thumb|right|Skull and brain, as illustrated in [[Paul Gervais|Gervais' Histoire naturelle des mammifères]]

thumb|3d model of skeleton

The Barbary macaque is first described in scientific literature by Aristotle in the fourth century BCE work History of Animals. He writes of an ape with "arms like a man, only covered with hair", "feet [which] are exceptional in kind ... like large hands", and "a tail as small as small can be, just a sort of indication of a tail". It is likely that Galen (129–c.216) dissected the Barbary macaque in the second century CE, presuming the internal structure to be the same as a human. Such was the authority of his work, some mistakes he made were not corrected until Andreas Vesalius (1514–1564) proved otherwise over a thousand years later.) to the Late Pleistocene, assigned to various subspecies including M. s. sylvanus, M. s. pliocena and M. s. florentina. It is thought possible that humans consumed Barbary macaques. The youngest known remains of a Barbary macaque in Europe were discovered at Hunas in Bavaria, Germany, dated to 85,000–40,000 years ago. The distribution of the Barbary macaque in Europe was likely strongly influenced by climate, only extending into Northern Europe during interglacial intervals. It was restricted to more southerly regions during colder glacial phases. The disappearance of the Barbary macaque in Europe may have been caused by humans.

Fossils of the Barbary macaque are known from the Guefaït-4.2 site in Morocco, dating to around the Pliocene-Pleistocene boundary approximately 2.6 million years ago where measurements of carbon isotopes and oxygen isotopes indicate that the macaque consumed primarily the fresh fruits and leaves of C<sub>3</sub> plants.

Description

thumb|Head of individual at the [[Prague Zoo in Prague, Czech Republic]]

thumb|Skull photographed at the [[Museum Wiesbaden in Wiesbaden, Germany]]

thumb|Hands and feet

The Barbary macaque has a dark pink face with a pale buff to golden brown to grey pelage and a lighter underside. The colour of mature adults changes with ages. It has cheek pouches and high-crowned bilophodont molars (molars with two ridges); the third molar is elongated. During World War II, Winston Churchill ordered for more Barbary macaques to be introduced to Gibraltar to reverse population declines. A Tunisian population was mentioned in the works of ancient Greek writer Herodotus, indicating the species has become extinct there within the last 2,500 years. These coalitions are not permanent and may change frequently as male ranking within the group changes. Although males are more likely to form coalitions with males who have helped them in the past, this is not as important as relatedness in determining coalitions.

Barbary macaque females have the ability to recognize their own offspring's calls through a variety of acoustic parameters. Because of this, infant calls do not have to differ dramatically for mothers to be able to recognize their own infant's call. Mothers demonstrate different behaviours on hearing the calls of other infant macaques as opposed to the calls of their own offspring. More parameters for vocalizations lead to more reliable identification of calls in both infants and in adult macaques so it is not surprising that the same acoustic characteristics that are heard in infant calls are also heard in adult calls.

Mating

thumb|Barbary macaques mating in [[Béjaïa]]

Although Barbary macaques are sexually active at all points during a female's reproductive cycle, male Barbary macaques determine a female's most fertile period by sexual swellings on the female.

Predators

The Barbary macaque's main predators are the domestic dog, The approach of eagles and domestic dogs is known to elicit an alarm call response.

The species decreased with the arrival of the last Last Glacial Period, going functionally extinct on the Iberian Peninsula except for Gibraltar around 30,000 years ago.

The Barbary macaque is threatened by habitat loss, overgrazing, and illegal capture. In Morocco, tourists interact with Barbary macaques in many regions. Information collected in the interviews with inhabitants in the High Atlas of Morocco indicated that the capture of macaques occurs in these regions. Conflict between local people and wild macaques is one of the greatest challenges to Barbary macaque conservation in Morocco. The main threats to the survival of Barbary macaques in this region have been found to be habitat destruction and the impact of livestock grazing, but problems of conflict with inhabitants are also increasing due to crop raiding and the illegal capture of macaques. Human–macaque conflict is mainly due to crop raiding. In the High Atlas of Morocco, macaques attract a large number of tourists every year, and they are favoured for their potential benefits to tourism. In addition, macaques have some ecological roles; for example, they are the predators of several destructive insects and pests of plants and participate in seed dispersal in many plant species. Strong cultural taboos of his time prevented his performing any dissections of human cadavers, even in his role as physician and teacher of physicians.

Macaques in Morocco are frequently used as photo props, despite their protected status.

Tourists interact with wild monkeys across the globe, and in some situations, tourists may be encouraged to feed, photograph, and touch the monkeys. Although tourism has the potential to bring in money towards conservation goals and provides an incentive for the protection of natural habitats, close proximity and interactions with tourists can also have significant psychological impacts on the Barbary macaques. Fecal samples and stress-indicating behaviours, such as belly scratching, indicate that the presence of tourists has a negative impact on the macaques. Human activities such as taking photographs cause the animals stress, possibly because the people come too close to the animals and make prolonged eye contact (a sign of aggression in many primates). Macaques that live in areas close to human contact have more parasites and lower overall health than those that live in wilder environments, at least in part due to the unhealthy diets they receive as a result of feeding from humans.

Several groups of Barbary macaques can be found in tourist sites, where they are affected by the presence of visitors providing food to them. Researchers comparing two such groups in the central High Atlas mountains in 2008 found that the tourist group of Barbary macaques spent significantly more time engaged in resting and aggressive behaviour, and foraged and moved significantly less than the wild group. The tourist group spent significantly less time per day feeding on herbs, seeds, and acorns than the wild group. Human food accounted for 26% of the daily feeding records for the tourist group, and 1% for the wild-feeding group.

The tourist and the wild groups did not differ in the proportion of daily records devoted to terrestrial feeding, but the tourist group spent a significantly lower percentage of daily records in terrestrial foraging, moving and resting, while performing more terrestrial aggressive displays more than the wild group. There was no significant difference between the two groups in the proportion of terrestrial feeding records spent eating fruits; but the tourist group had lower daily percentages of terrestrial feeding on leaves, seeds and acorns, roots and barks, and herbs, while it spent higher daily percentages of terrestrial feeding on human food.

  • ARKive - images and movies of the Barbary macaque (Macaca sylvanus)