Home Range and Habitat Use of Crop-Raiding Barbary Macaques in the Upper Ourika Valley, Western High Atlas Mountains, Morocco

Studies of animal ranging behavior and habitat use are of a great importance in investigating the interaction between the ecological factors and the patterns of individual behaviors. Home range size and habitat utilization are assumed to be primarily dependent on the availability, distribution, and quality of food resources [1-6]. With generally smaller home ranges, and compared to frugivorous species, folivorous species tend to move over shorter distances each day. In addition, primates can adjust their ranging behavior according to seasonal variations in food availability [7]. For instance, the length of daily travel is shortened in some species when high-quality food is rare (e.g., Trachypithecus pileatus [8], Hylobates lar [9]), conversely, other species move further to look for high-quality food resources (e.g., Colobus angolensis [10], Trachypithecus leucocephalus [11]). Ranging behavior and habitat use may also be influenced by other factors such as rainfall [12], group size [13], forest structure [4], water availability [14], location of dormitory [5], intergroup relationships [15], and parasite avoidance [16]. Nevertheless, crop-raiding primates having access to locally concentrate and high-quality food are thought to have also small home ranges that can be affected by the intensity of the human-primate conflict. This could be the case of the Barbary macaque (Macaca sylvanus) in degraded Holm-oak forest patches in its southernmost distribution range in Western High Atlas, Morocco, and where the groups rely on fruit-growing crops for their subsistence during the fruiting season (late spring to mid-autumn).