Baboons are primates comprising the genus Papio, one of the 23 genera of Old World monkeys.
They have existed for at least two million years.
There are five species of baboons, commonly known as hamadryas baboon, Guinea baboon,
olive baboon, yellow baboon and chacma baboon.
Let's find out the most interesting facts about the chacma baboons.
Baboons are extremely intelligent as evidenced in the Cape Peninsula,
where tourists have fed them over the years, teaching them that humans are a source of food.
Those particular baboons grab handbags and picnic baskets looking for snacks.
Fortunately, at Sabi Sabi, there is no contact between guests and wild animals,
so the baboons search for their meals naturally in the bushveld
creating great entertainment as they roam the reserve searching for food, or sit and mutually groom,
inspecting each other’s fur and munching with great relish on any ticks or fleas that they can find.
The chacma baboon (Papio ursinus), also known as the Cape baboon, is, like all other baboons,
from the Old World monkey family.
It is one of the largest of all monkeys.
Located primarily in southern Africa, the chacma baboon has a wide variety of social behaviors,
including a dominance hierarchy, collective foraging, adoption of young by females, and friendship pairings.
These behaviors form parts of a complex evolutionary ecology.
In general, the species is not threatened,
but human population pressure has increased contact between humans and baboons.
Hunting, trapping, and accidents kill or remove many baboons from the wild, thereby reducing baboon numbers.
Appearance: Baboons vary in size and weight depending on the species.
The smallest, the Kinda Baboon, while the largest, the chacma baboon.
The male Chacma baboons are a lot larger than the females.
Fully grown adult males can be 1.5 meters tall and weigh up to 45kg,
with the females being half the size.
They communicate by means of distinctive grunts and barks, which they call repetitively.
These baboons have doglike, forward sloping faces.
Their entire bodies, other than their muzzles and rumps, are covered in spiky, grey hair.
Newborn infants are black, and have red faces.
A feature the males’ jaws are their formidable canine teeth, which at a length 5cm.
The canines of males are much larger that these of females.
Diet and Nutrition
Chacma baboons need to live close to a fresh water source.
They are omnivorous, spending much of the day on the ground supplementing a very varied diet.
The baboons will feed on fruits, roots, tubers, leaves, insects and scorpions, as well as birds and small mammals.
Their liking of fruits, vegetables and nuts unfortunately often brings the baboons into conflict with farmers.
Distribution
Chacma baboons Papio ursinus are found in much of Southern Africa, including South Africa,
Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mocambique.
The area of their distribution covers the greater part of southern Africa.
They live in diverse habitats from woodlands to savanna, steppes and sub-desert.
Chacma baboons are found in Kalahari Desert as well as on alpine slopes of the Drakensberg.
They usually sleep on hills, cliffs or large trees.
During the day, these primates avoid arid areas with lack of water.
Habits and Lifestyle
They are a social species, living in family groups called troops.
A large troop can comprise as many as 200 family members, although most troops are smaller.
Within the families are males, females and their offspring.
Females give birth to a single baby after a gestation period of around 6 months.
These monkeys are diurnal, spending most of the day on the ground.
They are highly sociable animals.
The troops include males as well as females with their young.
Members of a troop are in close ties with each other, sleeping, feeding and grooming together.
During the day the groups split into smaller subgroups,
consisting of 4-5 females with their young and a dominant male,
who leads the group and defends it from other males.
They are always on the alert, living in troops for protection and watching for predators.
When threatened, the baboons give out loud barks.
Then the males run to attack while the females and young hide in a safe place among the trees.
The species walks on all fours, and can reach a top running speed of 56km per hour,
with a gallop similar to that of a horse. The baboon’s main predator is the leopard.
However, many unlucky leopards have been badly injured
after being aggressively mobbed and attacked by groups of adult male baboons.
Fun Facts about Chacma Baboons
Chacma baboons can live for over 45 years.
The baboons have the habit of turning over stones in search of suitable food,
so it's quite easy to tell where a troop has been foraging.
These primates spend time grooming each other, which strengthens their position in the troop.
They communicate by vocalizations, using about 30 different sounds
such as grunting, barking or screaming.
They also use gestures such as shoulder shrugs, yawns or lip smacking.
As it comes to food and water, they rely on each other.
Every member of a baboon family or group takes part in the search of water and food.
These monkeys have cheek pouches where they store food.
The baboon infants like to spend time playing with each other high in the trees.
While we share 91% of our DNA with them, baboons are not classified as apes.
Researchers feel like there is a variety of different factors that differentiate a baboon from an ape,
therefore, they are classified as monkeys.
Baboons have the same number of teeth and the exact same dental pattern as humans.
They are Old World monkeys that split from humans and apes on the Primate family tree
about 30 million years ago.
In Egyptian mythology, Baby was the deification of the hamadryas baboon
and, therefore, it was viewed as a sacred animal.
It was a known attendant of Thoth, so it’s recognized as the sacred baboon.
Their main predators are large cats, such as lions, hyenas, leopards, cheetahs,
and wild dogs, and eagles, crocodiles and pythons.
Baboons reach sexual maturity between the age of 5 and 8.
When they do reach sexual maturity, the young males will leave their groups while the females stay.
Baboons mate throughout the year.
Baboons have loose cheeks which allow them to gather food
while foraging to eat later once they return to an area of safety.
Baboons’ daily routine is somewhat similar to our own.
They tend to wake up around 7.30am.
They spend some time in their group before going out to forage for food.
They spend the daylight hours foraging, eating, resting and grooming,
before heading back to their sleeping areas at night.
The bond between mother and infant baboon is very special.
The mother will carry the young until he or she is able to ride on her back.
They are in constant contact for the first few months, and the mother is very attentive.
Only once an infant reaches around 4 months of age
will they be allowed to play and interact with other young baboons.
Baboons have co-existed with human ancestors for many millions of years.
The oldest baboon fossil is a skull found in South Africa that is thought to be two million years old.
Predation
Despite their formidable nature and large size, chacma baboons are vulnerable to a variety of predators.
Undoubtedly the main predator of adult chacma baboons overall is the leopard.
In the Waterberg Biosphere,
chacma baboon comprised 20.2% of leopard kills and 18.7% of the leopard's prey biomass.
Although previously little documented, the African wild dog,
a predator of similar or even slightly inferior size to male baboons themselves,
in Mana Pools National Park (Zimbabwe) took to chacma baboons as their main prey,
comprising 44% of 118 kills.
Less routine predation on chacma baboons has been reportedly committed by lions,
spotted hyena, Nile crocodiles and African rock pythons (in rough descending likelihood of threat).
The predators of young chacma baboons are probably even more diverse but poorly-documented.
It is documented that Verreaux's eagles and martial eagles have taken young chacma baboons
and probable or possible predation has been committed by other eagles: crowned eagles and tawny eagles.
When approaching potentially dangerous sites such as watering holes,
more vulnerable members of the chacma baboon group may travel near the rear of the group
but may conversely end up by the front of group out of fear if a predator approaches.
The adult male chacma baboon has a fearsome defense
and may assault their predators with their large, sharp canine teeth,
which can at least seriously injure predators as formidable as leopards,
and (despite being far from exempt from predation) the adult males tend to be the least vulnerable members of the baboon troops.
As in other monkeys, the larger, more formidable male baboons may successfully
defend more vulnerable members of the troop via attacking predators if they come into sight.
So the interesting facts about the Chacma baboons is over.
Thank you for watching until the end of my video, goodbye and see you in the next clip.