AR-News: Morocco's Barbary macaques struggle to survive

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From:primfocus at waste.org


http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian/issues04/mar04/monkey.html
Monkey in the Middle

Blamed for destroying one of North Africa's most important forests,
Morocco's Barbary macaques struggle to survive

In the Atlas Mountains of Morocco are vital forests of oak and cedar. In
recent years, the trees have begun dying at an alarming rate, setting in
motion an ecological crisis at the center of which is the Barbary macaque
(Macaca sylvanus), a medium-sized monkey found only in Morocco, Algeria and
Gibraltar and also known as the Barbary ape for its resemblance to its
larger, also tailless, cousin. Some Moroccan officials blame the macaques
for killing the Middle Atlas forest, because the animals are known to strip
bark from cedar trees to get at the moist, nutrient-rich living tissue
underneath. But an Italian scientist who has studied macaques in Morocco for
20 years says the monkeys have nothing to do with the deforestation; in
fact, Andrea Camperio Ciani argues that macaques are the victims of the
dying forest, not the other way around. The story by writer John F. Ross,
with reporting in Morocco by photographer Enrico Ferorelli, is a reminder of
nature's interconnectedness-a parable of how the destruction of one natural
resource may eventually cause large and untoward harm even to people.



the wild, cruel beast is not behind the bars of the cage. he is in front of it - axel munthe

"Never doubt that a small group of dedicated citizens can change the world. 
Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."      Margaret Mead
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