Welcome to the Barbary Macaque Project! 

This longitudinal project started in January 2008 from a collaboration between Dr. Bonaventura (Bino) Majolo (School of Psychology, University of Lincoln, U.K.) and Professor Mohamed Qarro (ENFI: Ecole Nationale Forestière d’Ingénieurs, Salé, Morocco). Since then, collaborative projects have also been run with the University of Roehampton (U.K.) and the Georg August University of Gottingen (Germany). Permission to conduct research in Morocco is granted by Haut Commissariat aux Eaux et Forêts et à la Lutte Contre la Désertification of Morocco.

The general aim of this project is to understand the socio-ecology of the Barbary macaque (Macaca sylvanus) in order to shed light on the ecological and social factors affecting primate social behaviour. This is important not only to deepen our understanding of this fascinating species but also to compare data on the Barbary macaque with those on other macaque species differing in dominance style, geographic distribution and/or group composition. The ultimate goal is to contribute comparing the ecology and social behaviour of macaque species and use this information to clarify the relative importance of the ecological and social factors shaping social evolution and behavioural diversity.