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Efectos de la Disponibilidad de Agua y la Calidad del Hábitat en la Conducta Descortezadora del Macaco de Barbary
Author(s) -
Ciani Andrea Camperio,
Martinoli Loredana,
Capiluppi Claudio,
Arahou Mohamed,
Mouna Mohamed
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
conservation biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.2
H-Index - 222
eISSN - 1523-1739
pISSN - 0888-8892
DOI - 10.1111/j.1523-1739.2001.99019.x
Subject(s) - livestock , undergrowth , geography , agroforestry , overgrazing , habitat , environmental science , ecology , forestry , transect , biology , grazing
The cedar oak forest of the Middle Atlas in Morocco is not only the last of the large forests in the southern Mediterranean, but it also contains all the surviving forest biodiversity. This forest has been severely affected by drought, overgrazing by mixed herds of goat and sheep, and excessive logging for timber, firewood, and livestock fodder. Recently, cedar bark stripping by Barbary Macaques ( Macaca sylvanus ) has begun to have an effect on the forest. We investigated this behavior by monitoring a 500‐km 2 mosaic forest of cedar and oak in the Middle Atlas of Morocco between 1994 and 1996. We surveyed the forest 18 times in four different seasons along a 90‐km transect. We recorded observations of bark stripping and a variety of quantitative ecological factors that could predict this behavior, such as livestock density, forest quality, undergrowth condition, water availability, and monkey density. The statistical analysis (including rank correlation, regression, and nonparametric variance analysis) strongly suggests that water scarcity and monkey exclusion from previously available permanent water sources are correlated with intense cedar bark‐stripping behavior by macaques. The density of cedars and of monkeys appeared to be only secondary factors. As a conservation policy, making water more accessible to wild monkeys might reduce bark‐stripping behavior.