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February 16, 2006

African Field Notes: The Baboon

Check out our Safari South Africa podcast - an audio program and a video that features this animal!

Baboons are found in surprisingly varied habitats and are extremely adaptable. All they need is a water source and a safe sleeping place, such as a tall tree or a cliff face.

When water is readily available, baboons drink every day or two, but they can survive for long periods by licking the night dew from their fur.

They spend a lot of time grooming each other while the juveniles play – pick off bugs and eat them. Yum!

One interesting phenomena is that you often find impala and baboons coexisting. The reason for this is unclear. Baboons are more vigilant – baboons forage for seeds on the ground and the impala nibble on new shoots on the bushes.

Sometimes, the male baboons will eat young impala. The impala drop their young after the first rains and there were large numbers of very young calves around. The baboons have been known to grab the baby impala and violently eat them, yet the impala herd does not show any distress over this. Baboons are generally messy feeders and drop a lot of food onto the ground from trees which the impalas feed on.

Latin Genus: Papio
A Group Is Called: A Troop (More Group Names At: Critter Collectives)

Posted by sorsha at February 16, 2006 5:29 PM