Morocco fights to save threatened iconic monkey

CHEFCHAOUEN, Morocco - "If nothing is done, this species will disappear within 10 years," warns a poster on Ahmed Harrad's aging 4x4 showing Morocco's famed Barbary macaque monkey.

Harrad spends his time crisscrossing northern Morocco to try to convince locals to protect the endangered monkey.

The only species of macaque outside Asia, which lives on leaves and fruits and can weigh up to 20 kilograms, was once found throughout North Africa and parts of Europe.

But having disappeared from Libya and Tunisia, it is now restricted to mountainous regions of Algeria and Morocco's northern Rif region. Another semi-wild population of about 200 individuals in Gibraltar are the only free-ranging monkeys in Europe.

Today, the only native primate north of the Sahara, apart from humans, is in danger of extinction, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Conservationists blame illegal poaching, tourists who feed the monkeys and overexploitation of the cedar and oak forests that form the species' natural habitat.

In response, Morocco has launched a campaign to save the species.

"We are working on two areas - monitoring and making a census of the species in the Rif and raising awareness among locals so that they actively help rescue it," Harrad said, adding that the monkeys are often sold to buyers in Europe for between $110 and $330 despite laws forbidding the trade.

Seen as quiet and cute when it is young, the adult monkey can become a burden.

"It breaks things, bites, fights with children and climbs the curtains," prompting many owners to abandon their pets, Harrad said.

But that hasn't stopped the tailless monkeys, with their thick grey-and-ginger fur, being highly sought-after by passing travelers throughout the ages.

According to National Geographic, skeletal remains of macaques have been discovered "in the ashes of Pompeii, deep within an ancient Egyptian catacomb, and buried beneath an Irish hilltop where the Bronze Age kings of Ulster once held court".

Last October, the Barbary macaque was listed as a species threatened with extinction on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

That makes buying and selling the monkeys illegal except under exceptional circumstances.

Zouhair Ahmaouch, an official at Morocco's High Commission for Water, Forests and Combating Desertification, welcomed the move.

"It will allow Morocco and other countries to unify their efforts to fight against the illegal trade in Barbary macaques," he said. Morocco has a "global responsibility to conserve this heritage".