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Baboon
Baboons with their strong muscular bodies, powerful jaws, and razor sharp canine teeth have been known to chase away and even kill attacking lions. These mammals which mostly live in Africa (also Arabia) are some of the largest monkeys on earth. Below we have listed many interesting facts about this African animal including the different types of Baboons, where they live, and how closely related to humans they are. Hopefully this information will help both kids and adults better understand this fascinating mammal.
The baboon, of all the primates in East Africa, most frequently interacts with people. Apart from humans, baboons are the most adaptable of the ground-dwelling primates and live in a wide variety of habitats. Intelligent and crafty, they can be agricultural pests, so they are treated as vermin rather than wildlife.
Physical characteristics
Baboons inhabit woodlands, semi-deserts and sub alpine meadows along the Drakensberg. The Chacma baboon is replaced in the north by its close relative, the yellow baboon. They are Widely distributed throughout Southern Africa and in countries beyond.
Behavior
Diet
Omnivorous, under natural conditions they feed on wild fruits, seeds and insects, even scorpions, and on occasion even the flesh of small mammals and birds. Because troops are inclined to raid commercial crops, baboons are not popular with maize and fruit farmers.
Baboons are opportunistic eaters and, fond of crops, become destructive pests to many African farmers. They eat fruits, grasses, seeds, bark, and roots, but also have a taste for meat. They eat birds, rodents, and even the young of larger mammals, such as antelopes and sheep.
Caring for the young Baboons
For the first month, an infant baboon stays in very close contact with its mother. The mother carries the infant next to her stomach as she travels, holding it with one hand. By the time the young baboon is 5 to 6 weeks old it can ride on her back, hanging on by all four limbs; in a few months it rides jockey style, sitting upright. Between 4 and 6 months the young baboon begins to spend most of its time with other juveniles.
Predators
The baboon's major predators are humans. Knowing that humans can easily kill or injure them when they are in trees, baboons usually escape through undergrowth. Males may confront other predators like leopards or cheetahs by forming a line and strutting in a threatening manner while baring their large canines and screaming. Baboons are fierce fighters, but a demonstration such as this can put the predator on the run.
Did you know?
Guinea Baboon (or Western, Red Baboon) - inhabits western Africa
Hamadryas Baboon - habitat is the Horn of Africa and Arabia (south west)
Olive Baboon - inhabits the savannas of North-Central Africa
Yellow Baboon - lives in eastern and south-central Africa
Sources:
http://interesting-africa-facts.com/Africa-Animal-Facts/African-Baboon-Facts.html
http://www.krugerpark.co.za/africa_chacma_baboon.html
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/group/baboons/
http://www.outtoafrica.nl/animals/engbaboon.html?zenden=2&subsoort_id=1&bestemming_id=1
Baboons with their strong muscular bodies, powerful jaws, and razor sharp canine teeth have been known to chase away and even kill attacking lions. These mammals which mostly live in Africa (also Arabia) are some of the largest monkeys on earth. Below we have listed many interesting facts about this African animal including the different types of Baboons, where they live, and how closely related to humans they are. Hopefully this information will help both kids and adults better understand this fascinating mammal.
The baboon, of all the primates in East Africa, most frequently interacts with people. Apart from humans, baboons are the most adaptable of the ground-dwelling primates and live in a wide variety of habitats. Intelligent and crafty, they can be agricultural pests, so they are treated as vermin rather than wildlife.
Physical characteristics
- There is a wide range in size among the various species of Baboons. At approximately 20 inches (50 centimeters) in length with a weight of about 30 pounds (13.6 kilograms) the Guinea baboon is tiny compared to its cousin the Chacma Baboon. The Chacma Baboon can reach lengths of 47 inches (120 centimeters) and weigh up to 90 pounds (40.8 kilograms).
- The most distinctive difference between other monkeys and baboons is the size and shape of the nose. Every other species of monkey has a flat nose as opposed to the baboon who has a long and large nose that takes up a good part of their face.
- These animal's canine teeth are long and can be razor sharp, especially on the males.
- Baboons have a pronounced, course and somewhat wild looking mane of fur on the sides of their faces and shoulders but a distinct lack of fur on their faces and ears.
- These apes' color varies and can be yellow, dark olive, brown, and even silver depending on the species.
- The Chacma Baboon is a large primate with a dog-like face and large, prominent canines.
- A mature male measures 1.5 m from head to tail and weighs up to 33 kg, whereas the slenderer female measures 1.1 m and has a mass of about 15 kg.
Baboons inhabit woodlands, semi-deserts and sub alpine meadows along the Drakensberg. The Chacma baboon is replaced in the north by its close relative, the yellow baboon. They are Widely distributed throughout Southern Africa and in countries beyond.
Behavior
- Baboons can be very aggressive.
- It is a known fact that they would viciously counter-attack their predators when threatened.
- Troops are 50 to 100 strong, and have a well-developed and complex social structure.
- Baboons usually leave their sleeping places around 7 or 8 a.m. After coming down from the cliffs or trees, adults sit in small groups grooming each other while the juveniles play.
- They then form a cohesive unit that moves off in a column of two or three, walking until they begin feeding.
- Fanning out, they feed as they move along, often traveling five or six miles a day.
- They forage for about three hours in the morning, rest during the heat of the day and then forage again in the afternoon before returning to their sleeping places by about 6 p.m.
- Before retiring, they spend more time in mutual grooming, a key way of forming bonds among individuals as well as keeping the baboons clean and free of external parasites.
- Baboons sleep, travel, feed and socialize together in groups of about 50 individuals, consisting of seven to eight males and approximately twice as many females plus their young.
- These family units of females, juveniles and infants form the stable core of a troop, with a ranking system that elevates certain females as leaders.
- A troop's home range is well-defined but does not appear to have territorial borders. It often overlaps with the range of other baboons, but the troops seem to avoid meeting one another.
- When they begin to mature, males leave their natal troops and move in and out of other troops.
- Frequent fights break out to determine dominance over access to females or meat.
- The ranking of these males constantly changes during this period.
- Males are accepted into new troops slowly, usually by developing "friendships" with different females around the edge of a troop.
- They often help to defend a female and her offspring.
Diet
Omnivorous, under natural conditions they feed on wild fruits, seeds and insects, even scorpions, and on occasion even the flesh of small mammals and birds. Because troops are inclined to raid commercial crops, baboons are not popular with maize and fruit farmers.
Baboons are opportunistic eaters and, fond of crops, become destructive pests to many African farmers. They eat fruits, grasses, seeds, bark, and roots, but also have a taste for meat. They eat birds, rodents, and even the young of larger mammals, such as antelopes and sheep.
Caring for the young Baboons
For the first month, an infant baboon stays in very close contact with its mother. The mother carries the infant next to her stomach as she travels, holding it with one hand. By the time the young baboon is 5 to 6 weeks old it can ride on her back, hanging on by all four limbs; in a few months it rides jockey style, sitting upright. Between 4 and 6 months the young baboon begins to spend most of its time with other juveniles.
Predators
The baboon's major predators are humans. Knowing that humans can easily kill or injure them when they are in trees, baboons usually escape through undergrowth. Males may confront other predators like leopards or cheetahs by forming a line and strutting in a threatening manner while baring their large canines and screaming. Baboons are fierce fighters, but a demonstration such as this can put the predator on the run.
Did you know?
- The lifespan of these African animals is 20-30 years on average.
- These old world monkeys are omnivorous and eat a mixture of berries, grass, leaves, bark, plant sap, pods as well as various fish, birds, insects and even small antelope and gazelles.
- These mammal's predators include cheetahs, lions, leopards, hyenas, pythons and birds of prey.
- Nearly one-half the size of adult males, females lack the male's ruff (long hairs around the neck), but otherwise they are similar in appearance.
- Baboons use over 30 vocalizations ranging from grunts to barks to screams. Non-vocal gestures include yawns, lip smacking and shoulder shrugging.
- The main threat to baboons is humans. Not only are humans destroying this animal's habitat to make way for crops and settlements but they are also hunting them for their meat. They are sometimes killed simply because people perceive them as pests or consider them to be evil because of their looks.
- A baby baboon develops quickly. By 5-6 weeks old, a baby can ride on the mother's back and although mother and baby form a close bond, by 4-6 months old the two spend most of the day apart.
- Ninety-one percent of baboons and humans’ DNA is the same.
- Baboons can survive for long stretches without water if necessary by licking the night dew that accumulates on their fur.
- Humans have only begun to understand the subtle and varied gestures and vocalizations of baboons.
- There are 30 different known vocalizations including distinct grunts, barks and screams as well as non-vocal gestures like lip-smacking, shrugging and yawning; all with a specific meaning.
- There are five different species of baboons they are:
Guinea Baboon (or Western, Red Baboon) - inhabits western Africa
Hamadryas Baboon - habitat is the Horn of Africa and Arabia (south west)
Olive Baboon - inhabits the savannas of North-Central Africa
Yellow Baboon - lives in eastern and south-central Africa
Sources:
http://interesting-africa-facts.com/Africa-Animal-Facts/African-Baboon-Facts.html
http://www.krugerpark.co.za/africa_chacma_baboon.html
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/group/baboons/
http://www.outtoafrica.nl/animals/engbaboon.html?zenden=2&subsoort_id=1&bestemming_id=1
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