Last Call for Morroccan Barbary Macaque

ALMERE, The Netherlands, July 19, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- In a last attempt to save the Moroccan Barbary Macaque from extinction, Dutch animal rescue organisation AAP has started a campaign aimed at tourists travelling to Morocco this summer. By handing out cardboard sunscreens with a heartbreaking photograph of a baby monkey and an appeal not to buy Barbary macaques, AAP hopes to raise awareness amongst travellers and put an end to the smuggling of these threatened animals.

Each year in late spring and early summer in Morocco hundreds of baby macaques are caught in the wild and sold to tourists on local markets. This fact, in combination with the loss of habit, has caused the number of Barbary macaques to drop dramatically to only 3.000 animals. This is just 13% of the number of animals that lived in Morocco in the seventies and the critical limit for survival has been reached.

Especially French Moroccans travelling to Morocco for their summer holidays, buy the young monkeys. This group is targeted by AAP in their campaign. On two busy parking places on the way to the ferries in Spain, travellers receive a cardboard sunscreen for their car with the last call for the Barbary Macaque. Flyers informing tourists of the risks of buying a Barbary macaque are handed out as well. AAP is aiming to reach at least a quarter of a million people with their message.

This campaign is organised together with the Moroccan Primate Conservation Foundation and carried out by a large number of volunteers who are willing to sacrifice their summer holidays in order to save the Barbary macaque from extinction.