The Great Mammals Disappeared From Morocco During The Holocene

The bones exhumed from the Holocene paleontological and/or archaeological sites of northern Morocco and the rock art zoomorphic representations, of the Atlas and southern Morocco, show that large mammals were represented, in addition to present species, by others species now extinct from country. We present in this contribution the list of these recently extinct great mammals. In addition. to scientific names, this table includes French, English and Arabic vernacular names of these species, also, their status in International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classification. No doubt that the extinctions of the Holocene epoch are due to interference between natural and human factors. We will distinguish between extinctions during prehistoric and historic periods. If the anthropogenic factors played a significant role in extinctions of historical periods, especially since the use of fire weapons, the extinctions of prehistoric and protohistoric periods are mainly due to natural factors. Indeed, climatic changes, especially desert implantation and extension, have played great role during Early Holocene. Most regionally extinct animals from Morocco during Holocene belong to the Bovidae and Equidae families. It is clear from this inventory that more than twenty species of great mammals have extinct from country, half of this number during the historic times. Most of these species live now in Africa, south of Sahara-barrier, except the reed deer and the bear, which now live in north of the Mediterranean. (C) 2017 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.