1| © www.globalsciencepg.org Biolife | 2018 | Vol 6 | Issue 3 B I O L I F E O R I G I N A LA R T I C L E Anthropogenic Actions on Population Density of the Barbary Macaques in Eastern Middle Atlas, Morocco Faical Boutlib 1 *, Camille M.F. Deman 2 , Jad Tahouri 3 , Raja Guemmouh 4 1,4 Laboratory of Biotechnology and Preservation of Naturals Resources,Department of life sciences, Faculty of Sciences Dhar el Mahraz, University Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah, Fez- Morocco. 2 Moroccan Association for Protection of Heritage and Barbary Macaques, Fez, Morocco. 3 Laboratory of Geodynamic and Naturals Resources, Department of Geology, Faculty of Sciences Dhar el Mahraz, University Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah, Fez- Morocco Email:faysalbo@gmail.com ABSTRACT The Barbary Macaque (Macaca sylvanus) lives in the forest biotopes of Algeria and Morocco. It is found mostly in the cedar forests of the Middle Atlas Mountains, where it lives in structured groups. In the Eastern Middle Atlas, in addition to cedar forests, it also lives on rocky outcrops. In these places, the groups are not isolated by habitat degradation and caves are used as dormitories. In the Eastern Middle Atlas, we counted the existing monkeys by a simple scan. The study showed that the remaining populations of monkeys have a large turnover of individuals. We summarize that the high proportion of young individuals and good preservation in the Eastern Middle Atlas. that there is neither strong anthropization of the groups nor poaching of the young macaques. Key words:Anthropization, Barbary macaque, Conservation in situ, demography, Morocco, Eastern Middle Atlas. INTRODUCTION The Barbary macaque (Macaca sylvanus, (Linnaeus 1758) is the only non-human primate in northern Africa. This species is placed into silenus-sylvanus group, one of the four phylogenetic groups (Abegg and Thierry, 2002).This palaeoendemic species was historically distributed throughout the Mediterranean region, but since the Pleistocene (Simons 1972; Camperio Ciani 1986), its population and distribution have shrunk to relict locations in Morocco and Algeria (Fa 1984). Furthermore, studies have shown that this and other macaques have experienced successive bottlenecks during the Pleistocene glaciations (Scheffrahn et al. 1993; Modolo Lara.et al. 2005). Consequently, Barbary macaque is currently listed as endangered in the IUCN red list of threatened species (IUCN 2011). How to Cite this Article: Faical Boutlib, Camille M.F. Deman, Jad Tahouri, Raja Guemmouh(2018).Anthropogenic Actions on Population Density of the Barbary Macaques in Eastern Middle Atlas, Morocco. Biolife. 6(2), 1-14. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7403053 Received: 12May2018; Accepted: 25June 2018; Published online: 18 July, 2018 Barbary macaque can be found in both low and high elevation areas (Cuzin 2003), occupying a wide range of habitat types including forests, desert dunes, rocky cliffs and summits of high mountains. However, the population density of this species varies widely with habitat type (Fa J.E, Taub D.M., Ménard N., Stewart 1984; Ménard N.1985b; Camperio Ciani 1986; Ménard N.&Vallet 1993a; Scheffrahn et al. 1993). Furthermore, but natural history and literature have shown significant population fluctuation (Taub D.M.1975; 1977; Hodges, 2006; Van Lavieren 2008). In Morocco, Barbary macaques are found mainly in high- altitude cedar forests in the Middle Atlas, where the population is estimated to be between 10,000-15,000 animals (Mehlman 1989). In the Middle Atlas, which contains 70% of the total population of Morocco (Camperio Ciani 1986), this number has dropped by about 65% over the last three decades (Taub 1977) to 5000 (Van Lavieren & Wich 2009; Ménard et al. 2009). Furthermore, Barbary macaques are distributed in the cedar forests of Sidi M'Guild, Ifrane, and Michlifen, green oak groves of Ain Leuh, El Hammam, between Azrou and Ain Leuh and Aliouane south forests. The population of this species is also found in the mixed forests of cedar and oak in Tamgilt and Taffert in the Middle Eastern Atlas (Boutlib F., Guemmouh R. et Deman C.M.F. 2016). The Barbary macaque can be used as a flagship species for AN INTERNATIONAL QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF BIOLOGY & LIFE SCIENCES 6(3):1-14 ISSN (online): 2320-4257 www.biolifejournals.com