Foraging in a changing world: Behavioural and demographic responses to climate and land-use change in Barbary macaque (Macaca sylvanus)

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The degradation of natural habitats due to human activities and climate change can reduce resource availability and negatively affect species’ fitness. However, agricultural areas near protected habitats may also provide predictable, clumped and nutritious resources. We investigated this trade-off in the endangered Barbary macaque ( Macaca sylvanus ). This primate inhabits Middle Atlas forests (Morocco) increasingly affected by drought and pastoral intensification. Moreover, former communal pasturelands have been converted into private orchards near forest edges, leading macaques to forage in crops. We tested whether access to crops compensates for natural resource depletion through behavioural adjustments that enhance fitness, particularly recruitment. We compared a forest site and a forest-orchard interface site. At the group scale we collected behavioural, GPS and accelerometer data to quantify movement metrics, time budgets and foraging efficiency. At the population scale, we collected a proxy of resource availability and demographic data. In the forest site, NDVI-derived metrics revealed an increase in low resource availability period along with a half decrease in immature recruitment between 2015 and 2023. By contrast, crop availability at the interface site increased foraging efficiency: macaques spent less time active and more time in low-activity states (based on accelerometer data), foraged less, had smaller home ranges and reduced daily travel distances. However, moving time increased, suggesting human avoidance. This enhanced foraging strategy was associated with higher immature recruitment at the interface population. The enhanced fitness at the interface site is threatened by human-wildlife conflict, urging protection of natural resources to improve population viability in natural habitats.