Interpreting People’s Behavior Toward Primates Using Qualitative Data: a Case Study from North Morocco

Abstract

People's perceptions of primates vary across and within cultures and may not be consistent with their behavior toward the primates themselves. We used qualitative data from semistructured and unstructured interviews with shepherds from 10 villages around Bouhachem oak forest in Morocco to describe and discuss shepherds' behavior when they encounter Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus). When macaques enter agricultural fields to feed on crops, mature men trap, attach a marker to them (a hat or a rattle), and release them. In contrast, young men and boys working as shepherds hunt and kill macaques when they encounter them in the forest. We interpret these findings in the context of the historical, social, and cultural factors that underlie these crossspecies encounters. We suggest the different ways men behave toward macaques over their lives are related to their age and social status. Understanding that men's behavior varies, and changes over the life course, we continued to engage positively with shepherds of all ages, sharing general information about the macaques and conducting community projects benefiting villagers' health. This strategy led shepherds from six villages to stop hunting macaques, with the behavior of young men and boys changing to reflect that of older men. We suggest that gaining a deep, contextualized understanding of the human-primate interface and fostering intrinsic values for a species are effective in gaining communities' support and fundamental to facilitating changes in people's behavior in favor of conservation.Author Contributions SW developed methodology, analyzed the data, and wrote the manuscript; SW and AEH conducted fieldwork; SB and JMS provided editorial input.Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

AN AMBIGUOUS PERCEPTION OF SUMATRAN ORANGUTANS (Pongo abelii) BY LOCAL COMMUNITY IN TANGKAHAN, LEUSER ECOSYSTEM, INDONESIA

“…The analysis process involved transcribing interviews, editing to retain respondent statements, categorizing statements into codes, organizing codes by themes, calculating code frequencies, and interpreting themes about local community perceptions of orangutans. Results were presented using an interpretative descriptive framework (Waters et al, 2018;Waters et al, 2019).…”

Working from the Inside Out: Fostering Intrinsic Motivation and Expanding Our Criteria for Conservation Success

“…We believe further study in this area would enhance future research. By spending time getting to know people, and the multispecies communities in which they/we are embedded, ethnoprimatologists can incorporate data on people's beliefs and perceptions as well as other important aspects of the bio-social domain (Dore, 2017(Dore, , 2018Hardin & Remis, 2006;Jost Robinson & Remis, 2018;Waters et al, 2020). This can facilitate strategies that will foster intrinsic motivation and build resilience, rather than perpetuating more top-down approaches (extrinsic motivation).…”

The major threats to the Endangered Barbary macaque Macaca sylvanus in North Africa

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