The destruction and degradation of the Barbary Macaque’s forest habitat is the most serious threat to the species. The severity of different threats varies in different parts of the species' range.
Conflicts with local people have been reported in Algeria, as a result of crop-raiding by macaques (e.g., villages in Djurdjura National Park in the Grande-Kabylie region: F. Belbachir pers. comm. 2007). Crop raiding by Barbary Macaques has been reported by farmers in the area of Ouzoud (El Alami and Chait 2014) and other areas of the High Atlas. As a consequence, the shooting of Barbary Macaques as a result of crop raiding and cedar bark stripping was reported by Deag (1977) and must be seen as an ongoing threat to the species’ future.
Local people (e.g., individuals, communities, co-operatives)
National external (individual, groups. e.g., hunters, anglers, photographers, tourists)
International external (individual, groups. e.g., hunters, anglers, photographers, tourists)
Is the use part of a strategy to generate conservation incentives, to finance conservation, or to improve tolerance/stewardship?
Unknown/not recorded
Is there evidence that the use is affecting the conservation status of the species? HIDE
Yes – use is negatively affecting the status (e.g., population is declining; extraction effort is increasing)
Is there evidence that the use is affecting natural selection?
Unknown/not recorded
Is there evidence that the use is affecting poaching of illegal wildlife trade?
Unknown/not reported
Is there any evidence that this use of the species is having a knock-on effect on the status of non-target species
Unknown/not recorded
Unknown/not recorded
Details of assessment carried out
Tourism in Morocco has the potential to contribute to Barbary macaque conservation through a number of routes, including revenue generation for multiple stake holders (e.g. site managers, guides and local communities), education, and improved protection and monitoring of macaque populations and their habitat. Careful consideration of the effects of tourism, and how these may be mitigated, will ensure these benefits are realised while minimising or eliminating the negative impacts on the animals involved.
Has a valuation of financial flows from this use at the site/national/international level been recorded
Tourism in Morocco has the potential to contribute to Barbary macaque conservation through a number of routes, including revenue generation for multiple stake holders (e.g. site managers, guides and local communities), education, and improved protection and monitoring of macaque populations and their habitat. Careful consideration of the effects of tourism, and how these may be mitigated, will ensure these benefits are realised while minimising or eliminating the negative impacts on the animals involved.
Has the use of the species been recorded as resulting in changes to human health in this record?
Unknown/not recorded
Has the species in use been noted as being of particular disease risk to humans?
Unknown/not recorded
Has the use of the species resulted in changes to animal welfare in this record?
Unknown/not recorded
Are there particular practices which have increased the risk to human or animal health or welfare in the use of this species?
Unknown/not recorded
Does the use of this species increase susceptibility to pathogen spread?
Maréchal, L., Semple, S., Majolo, B., Qarro, M., Heistermann, M., & MacLarnon, A. (2011). Impacts of tourism on anxiety and physiological stress levels in wild male Barbary macaques. Biological Conservation, 144(9), 2188-2193. doi: 10.1016/j.biocon.2011.05.010
findings suggest that while tourist presence and interactions (even apparently innocuous ones) with the macaques elevate the study animals’ anxiety levels, only aggressive interactions are sufficient to elicit a detectable increase in our measure of physiological stress; These findings indicate overall that tourism at this site may be having an impact on the animals at both an emotional and a physiological level.
all close interactions with tourists, even those such as being photographed that might seem apparently innocuous for the animals, are sufficient to elicit anxiety.
Threats/pressures impacting the species at the scale of this record