Rocamadour Monkey Forest, Primate conservation park in Rocamadour, France
The Rocamadour Monkey Forest is a zoological park on the Gramat causeway above a bend in the Lot river. It holds a single species, the Barbary macaque, with about 150 animals living freely and in the wild. A monkey with thick pale greyish-brown fur sits upright on a weathered brown log, hands flat on the wood, grey rocks and dark water behind it.
The park was established in the 1970s to protect Barbary macaques in a natural setting. It became one of the most visited attractions in the Lot region over time.
The park lets visitors watch the macaques in their daily routines and natural behaviors up close. You observe how they interact with each other, find food, and move through the forest just as they would in the wild.
You walk through marked paths to move between different forest sections. Comfortable shoes and time to move slowly help you see the macaques properly in their surroundings.
Since 1974, researchers at the park have studied the social behaviour of its 150 Barbary macaques, also called magots. The park states that over 600 individuals bred here have been reintroduced to Algeria and Morocco.
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