The Baboon

By: Aaron Schwartz
Submitted: 2007-01-17 16:26:59
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Baboon is one of the most widely spread primates in East Africa, which can be easily observed in savannas of Uganda, Tanzania and coast of Kenya. Baboon is considered to be one of the most willingly interacting with people, though in many agricultural areas baboons are considered to be harmful pests rather than common wildlife, as they bring damage to crops.

There are two major kinds of baboon in eastern Africa, which are differentiating by the color: the olive baboon and the yellow baboon. Both types of baboons are considered to be “dogfaced”, but as for yellow baboon, his nose is able to turn up more than nose of olive baboon. Like other inhabitants of dry and hot African savannas, baboons had adapted to lack of water and dry climate of African continent. So they need some water sources only and safe places for night-sleeping. Baboons can survive by limiting their drinking to one time in two days, or even by licking night dew from their fur (from Baboon, article).

Baboons start their active day at 7-8 a.m. with a sunrise. After waking up, adults group into small units and card each other, while juveniles sit playing. After this “morning procedure” they gather in bigger units and start walking until they find food. Their walk may take up to 5-6 miles a day. They are searching for food about 2-3 hours in the morning and in afternoon until 6-7p.m. before they return to their sleeping places. During hot time of the day they have a rest. Before sleep-time, they again are involved in a ritual of mutual grooming, as it allows them not only to free of parasites and stay clean but also is essential in establishing tight bonds between individuals.

Social units of baboons usually consist of approximately 50 individuals, with 7-8 males, 14-16 females and young. These social units form a kid of a troop, and what is more surprising that the position of leaders of a troop is taken by several females. Baboon’s troop even though has a wide home range, but still it doesn’t have any territorial borders. It means that different baboon troops meet often, but still they prefer to avoid each other.

When young male baboons begin to mature they are most likely to leave their native troop and move to another one. It often causes fights between males for domination over females and better food. New members of the troop in the face of young baboons from other troops are accepted very slowly, only after the “friendship” with other members of the troop, mainly females, had been established. They usually gain “friendship” by helping female baboons and protecting their offspring from enemies.

Baboons are omnivores, but still are selective feeders that carefully choose food. The largest part of their daily diet is represented by grass, “along with berries, seeds, pods, blossoms, leaves, roots, bark and sap from a variety of plants. Baboons also eat insects and small quantities of meat, such as fish, shellfish, hares, birds, velvet monkeys and young, small antelopes.” (from Baboon, article).

During the fist 4-6 months baboon has a close contact with his mother as he is unable to move independently. During the first month, mother carries “carries the infant next to her stomach as she travels, holding it with one hand”, later infant starts to “ride” on the back of his mum. When he is 5-6 month old premature baboons starts interacting with other young.

What is really surprising is that baboons do not have any serious enemies in wild life; the main predator of this primate is a human. Because human can “easily kill or injure them when they are in trees, baboons usually escape through undergrowth”(from Baboon). Baboons also are able to resist bigger predators as leopards by forming formidable troop of males who start screaming and demonstrating their big fangs.

Baboons have more than 30 different vocalizations for expressing their emotions starting from barking and ending with screaming. They also use gestures such as “yawns, lip smacking and shoulder shrugging”.

Besides, recent researches have shown that baboons have some of abilities of abstract reasoning like humans. In the research done by the Center for Research in Cognitive Neuroscience have shown that baboons are able to abstract objects. In the experiment baboons were shown 16 different pictures of simple objects such as sun, bulb, house, etc. Then, baboons were shown other set of pictures, in order them to set a relationship with fist shown pictures. It was a surprise when baboons matched the pictures with a result that was much higher than a simple chance: “It took thousands of trials for them to learn the "relation between relations" required by the task, but they did it. Say the authors, "Although discriminating the relation between relations may not be an intellectual forte of baboons, it is nevertheless within their ken."”(from Baboons can think abstractly)

So, the experiments with baboons may help to understand the nature of cognitive and reasoning processes in mind and better understand neuro-activity of primates.

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