How to find your character
By Rosie Thomas, Producer and Director for Macaque
With COVID impacting Dynasties just as it did the rest of the planet, our filming had already been delayed by several months…
Then, in November 2020, nearly a year later than we had hoped to begin and after several false starts, we were finally able to pack our bags and head out to Morocco. However, with strict restrictions in the country, none of the monkey troops in the area had been seen or followed for several months. There were even reports that without any tourists allowed to visit the park, the ‘tourist groups’ that live along the roadsides – which we had previously discounted - had started returning to their more natural, wild ways. This left the candidates for which group we should follow wide open!
The scientists had studied many different groups over the 18 years of their project. However, with the enforced break in their research, they were almost as much in the dark as we were. The only way to pick our group was going to be finding out the ‘up to date’ goings on with them all. This would enable us to decide which would be best to focus on for this film.
First, we had to find them! We walked mile after mile, round and round in circles at times, until we finally caught a glimpse of some movement on the horizon. The Purple group.
When we eventually caught up with them, they were loitering around some small holdings. Their group had exploded to over 130 monkeys – massive for a Barbary macaque troop. They were bold around humans, raiding farmland regularly and not afraid to cause chaos. Their new food source allowed the group to remain so large, but a group as big and chaotic as this would be hugely problematic to film. There were juveniles and infants everywhere and trying to track down and identify individual adults and work out their hierarchy was going to be tough. Purple had to be ruled out.
Soon after, we found the Yellow group. They were too nervous and extremely difficult to follow, despite us keeping a great distance and minimising our movements.
there was a power struggle playing out before our eyes
Next, we tracked down the Green group. A more manageable size, and comfortable with our presence. However, the researchers identified that one of them was missing – Artemis, the alpha male, was nowhere to be seen. Almost immediately we realised there was a power struggle playing out before our eyes, as the males all jostled for the vacant top spot. With such a powerful turning point happening, I instantly knew that this was our group.
With the Green group chosen, we then had to try and work out our lead character!
Joining the Green group at such a volatile stage in the male hierarchy battle, meant that however this played out, the struggle for dominance was going to be a large part of our story. Added to this was something that was totally unique to this group – an unstable female hierarchy. For female Barbary macaques, your place in the hierarchy is normally inherited from your mother. But in Green group – and nobody knows why – this simply isn’t the case! It soon became clear that working out the female hierarchy wasn’t going to be an easy task either… The females are subtle and understated in their power plays, and with constant shifting of dominance I knew that the female story would be an incredibly hard one to tell. So, it seemed like our focus had to be on the males…
The male hierarchy was all to play for – we watched it play out as the males went head-to-head in multiple battles. Each time different males aligned together in an attempt to beat their competition. Some were more successful than others though, and as the weeks went by it was clear there was one male coming out on top. It seemed like Mac was destined to be their new alpha, but only if he could hang on until the end of the mating season. From that point, we thought we knew who our lead character was going to be.
it became clear we had chosen the right monkey!
Over the next 18 months, as his dramatic battle to hold onto power played out, it became clear we had chosen the right monkey! We followed Mac and his troop constantly, in the dusty searing heat, through snowstorms, and witnessing new arrivals, new friendships and fallouts.
