Lara Modolo

Barbary macaques were formerly widely distributed throughout North Africa, but their distribution is now confined to some forested areas of Morocco and Algeria. Progressive destruction of existing habitats by deforestation has led to a reduction of available habitats and massive population fragmentation. The primary aim of my studies is to elucidate phylogeographic relationships among the remaining individual Barbary macaque populations and to examine the extent to which habitat fragmentation has left its mark on mtDNA variation. Habitat loss and fragmentation influence not only natural populations, semicaptive colonies also suffer from impaired gene flow as a consequence of isolation. The Gibraltar Barbary macaque population is particularly subject to those factors mentioned above because of the limited space and the complete isolation from other subpopulations. The study of genetic structure of small subpopulations would enhance our understanding of genetic consequences of isolation both in the wild and in captivity. The knowledge of the effects of population isolation are therefore of central importance for conservation biology.

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