About a month ago my time as a field assistant reached its end. I had then been working for Chris during nine months. But it was now time for me to return home to Sweden (with a little detour through Germany for a job interview) and leave everything that I had gotten so used to. […]

Earlier this week when Sofia and I were searching for the Green group in the morning – by the very edge of the home range – we stumbled across someone we hadn´t seen in months. Larsson! This young male migrated from his presumably natal group (the Green group) in the middle of the mating season […]

The sun is shining, food is plentiful, you are being groomed for over 30 minutes, no deadlines, no alarm clock. Ah, the peaceful life of a Barbary macaque. Until…a high pitched alarm call breaks the silence. DOGS! In less than two seconds the whole group is seeking refuge in trees, vigilantly looking for the intruders. […]

From time to time intergroup encounters occur. Home range sizes for Barbary macaques in The Middle Atlas region encompass in general a few km2 (the smallest home ranges for this species), and they overlap with other groups´ (Fooden 2007). One usually notices an intergroup encounter by spotting a “frontline” i.e. a few monkeys sitting and […]

I find group at the top of “the vertical valley”. The hill is very steep and really takes the steam out of you. After twenty minutes of walking uphill, we are warm but still have cold cheeks since it is only a few degrees out. And there they are. Seemingly waiting for us. They’ve spotted […]