Why barbary macaques are awesome

[DrBurrito]

I really like them. Their really cool. I'm gonna explain why because i really want more people to consider them.

1. Their the only monkey in Europe being found in Gibraltar (the southern part of Spain).
2. Their the only macaque species in Africa.
3. Their the only monkey species that lives in the Sahara aside from baboons.
4. They are very distinct from out existing Japanese macaque. To start off they live in the complete opposite biome. They also have a a much more brown coat and face unlike the Japanese's white coat and red face. Unlike the Japanese they don't have a tail only sporting a little stub with lots of spiked up fur around it.
5. Though were probably won't get one due to us having the raccoon now they would still be perfect for and urban pack. There's so many videos online of them being a nuisance in city streets.
6. They have 152 EAZA holdings. I'm not sure how many AZA holdings their are but I'm pretty sure they're also pretty common there. Overall they are a really common zoo animal though.

I agree that this is a species we need in the game, mainly due to their cold tolerance and EAZA representation. In fact, cold tolerance is one of the many reasons European zoos prefer including this species in their collections.

Although, I would like to make a small correction. Barbary macaques don't live in the desert, so I don't think saying "they live in the complete opposite biome" is the right approach. Their primary habitat is montane cedar forests, followed by cedar-oak mixed forests and pure oak forests. The former is considered 'Taiga' in the game, while the latter two would be 'Temperate' due to the existence of oak in said temperate forest compositions. To a lesser extent, they also inhabit grasslands, shrublands and Mediterranean type vegetation areas at lower elevations, so 'Grassland' as a third biome suitability would be accurate.

Edit: Adding visual references for the mentioned habitat types in the form of ecoregions.

Mediterranean conifer and mixed forests ecoregion: Part of the temperate conifer forests biome. Includes the primary and secondary habitats of the Barbary macaque. Also the flagship species of the ecoregion. This ecoregion covers the first three aforementioned habitats (cedar, cedar-oak and pure oak).

Mediterranean woodlands and forests ecoregion: Part of the Mediterranean woodlands and forests biome. Includes the fourth habitat type mentioned in my original post.

Mediterranean High Atlas juniper steppe ecoregion: Part of the montane grasslands & shrublands biome (which includes the Tibetan and Andean Plateaus). Traditionally this biome is included in the definition of alpine tundra, but newer classification systems add a new biome type as a new category. In the game it is included in the custom 'Taiga' biome when it comes to biome suitability tagging for plants and animals, with a few exceptions that were overlooked during quality control at launch (i.e. Himalayan brown bear and polylepis tree). The same can be said about the front-end globe, as this biome is painted as 'Tundra' on the globe.

Adding source for the pictures, ecoregions and biomes:

Ecoregions 2017 ©

ecoregions.appspot.com

 

[Alexjh]

I mean, they are cool, but personally I'd have them low on the primate priority list just because we have a visually similar macaque already when there are so many primate groups with no representation at all, and even if that weren't the case, something like Celebes Crested or Lion-tailed would be a lot more distinctive.

 

[YesIndeed]

I mean, they are cool, but personally I'd have them low on the primate priority list just because we have a visually similar macaque already when there are so many primate groups with no representation at all, and even if that weren't the case, something like Celebes Crested or Lion-tailed would be a lot more distinctive.

Yeah I'd take a baboon anyday over these but personally they'd be like 5th on my primate wishlist.