Barbary ape
- The Strait of Gibraltar is about 14 km wide at its narrowest point, and another legend says that apes come from Africa and return through an underground tunnel connecting Gibraltar with Morocco. The legend links the strait with an underground tunnel between Gibraltar and Morocco.
- Male barbary apes readily play with other infants and often carry a favorite baby with them. They clean, entertain, and show it to their companions.
- The whole group helps raise the young — alloparenting is highly developed.
- Males take an active role in caring for infants and even use them to reduce aggression in conflicts.
- It has almost no tail, which is why it is sometimes wrongly called the “Barbary ape”.
- In captivity they have lived more than 25 years.
Age
Barbary apes typically live for 20 to 30 years, with a maximum lifespan of 30 years, and a theoretical lifespan ranging from 14 years and 7 months to 29 years and 1 month. The species reaches sexual maturity between 2 years and 11 months and 4 years and 10 months of age, and the young are born with their eyes open. The embryo develops inside the mother, and the infant feeds on its mother’s milk and remains constantly with her for a period lasting from 1 day to 2 years. The young begin to walk between 2 weeks and 1 month and 2 weeks of age. An adult barbary ape lives in a group and can reproduce, a stage that lasts from 4 to 25 years.
Phenotype
The young barbary ape has soft, dense fur for warmth, while an adult has thick, yellowish-brown fur that is denser in winter; the adult’s body is robust with four strong limbs used for walking and climbing, and its face is bare and pink with dark eyes; the species lacks a tail completely.
Physiology
The magot is a species reaching lengths from 50 to 70 cm and having a mass from 6.94 to 11.24 kg. At the embryo stage, body mass ranges from 0 to 0.1 g, while at the juvenile stage it is from 400 g to 2.5 kg, with a body length from 15 to 35 cm. An adult magot is characterized by a body mass from 7 to 13 kg and a body length from 55 to 70 cm.
Habitat
The magot is found on land, in highlands and tundra, as well as in deserts and semi-deserts, terrestrial forests, terrestrial meadows, and steppes. The species prefers temperate coniferous forests where it is cool and snow falls in winter, Mediterranean forests with a hot summer and warm rainy winter, and taiga characterized by cold winters and an abundance of coniferous trees such as spruce and pine. The climate in the magot’s habitats can vary: summers are almost without rain, with more precipitation in winter; summers are very hot, with temperatures above +25…+30 °C; summers are hot and almost without rain; summers are warm and almost without rain; or summers are warm and winters are not very cold. Altitude above sea level for the magot can reach up to 2.6 km.
Shelter
Barbary apes are found in trees or on rocky outcrops. The species does not have a permanent or long-term shelter. Barbary macaques do not use fixed shelters, and their shelters serve for protection from predators and for resting.
Geography
Barbary apes are found in the biogeographical realms of Palearctic and Indomalaya.
Feeding
The Magot is an omnivorous species, its diet including fruits, leaves, seeds, plant roots, as well as insects and other small animals. Females obtain food through gathering with their hands and using tools, preferring fruits, leaves, seeds, insects, small vertebrates, cones of coniferous trees, and berries. Young receive nourishment from milk, while adult individuals hunt beetles, butterflies, diptera, hymenoptera, bedbugs, orthoptera, dragonflies, mayflies, trichoptera, and decapod crustaceans. The Magot's feeding strategy involves searching for and obtaining food, but the species is preyed upon by smoky leopards. In some cultures, the Magot is consumed as food, but it does not meet halal or kosher requirements.
Reproduction
The barbary ape inhabits terrestrial environments and develops on land, away from bodies of water, with its young developing in nests built on or near the ground, sometimes high in shrubs or trees, or directly on the surface of the earth. Gestation lasts 5 months and 2 weeks, resulting in a single offspring after approximately 165 days; the female gives birth to one infant and carries it while providing care. The young are born alive, not hatched from eggs or larvae, and the interval between births is 1 to 2 years. Sexual reproduction occurs through homogamy, always involving fertilization without alternation of generations. The species reaches maturity from 3 to 7 years, and the female may have 1 to 2 litters during her lifetime; only the mother demonstrates parental care in ground nests.