Seasons first young Barbary macaque arrives at Stichting AAP

On Tuesday the 4th of August the first young Barbary macaque of the summer holiday season was brought in to Stichting AAP in Almere. The little male monkey, who is now called Qibla, is probably only two months old. The tiny animal was bought by tourists on the market in Morocco, where they were assured he would always stay so small. In a short space of time the owners soon discovered that such an animal is not a suitable pet.

Yearly in Morocco about three hundred young Barbary macaques are caught for the illegal trade, and in doing so their mothers and often other adults are killed in the most barbaric manner. Tourist buy the animals on the markets in Morocco and smuggled them to Europe to keep as pets. Although this is illegal it is unfortunately very popular. This practice is a contributing factor to the demise of the Barbary macaque population in the wild, the numbers have been halved and the animals are threatened with extinction.

Apes and monkeys are absolutely not suitable as pets and thus often these smuggled animals end up at Stichting AAP. Unfortunately, AAP does not have the facilities for all the animals which need to be rescued. At the moment we have 33 Barbary macaques and there are many on the waiting list.

Because it is now holiday time we expect the numbers to increase due to the seasonal trade and in the coming weeks to receive many mainly young animals.

Qibla now has to stay in the quarantine for the following three months, where he will be thoroughly medically examined. Because it is essential for such a young animal to grow up in a group he will as soon as possible be introduced to other Barbaries. Eventually Qibla will become a member of one of the existing groups of Barbary macaques who live at Stichting AAP.