The chacma baboon is 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.
Similar species: Primates
By dunlak
All rights reserved
Uploaded Jun 28, 2017. Captured Jun 24, 2017 08:10 in Ngamiland East, Botswana.
comments (3)
The chacma baboon (Papio ursinus) lives primarily in the woodlands and semi-deserts of southern Africa and has many interesting social behaviors, such as collective foraging, adoption, friendship pairings, and a dominance hierarchy. The Chacma is a large primate with a distinctive appearance. It has a dog-like face, large canine teeth, tufts of hair on the sides of its face, and a bald face, hands, feet, and rump. When in oestrus, the females develop bright red, swollen rumps to signal to the males that they are entering a reproductive cycle. Amazingly, their butts can grow as much as 16.5 cm (6.5 in) during this time!
As highly social animals, chacma baboons live in groups, called troops that consist of adult males, females, and young. These troops have a complex social structure. Usually, a dominant male runs the troop with other adult males ranked in dominance by age and size. The troops groom, sleep, and eat together, in addition to fiercely protecting each other. The young are very playful and enjoy chasing each other, wrestling, and swinging from vines. Under natural conditions, the chacma is an omnivore that eats fruit, seeds, insects, scorpions, and occasional mammals or birds. But, as humans have expanded into the baboon’s habitat, they have been hunted, captured for the pet trade, poisoned, and viewed as pests. The baboons are opportunistic, and they have come to associate humans with food because it’s in their houses, on their farms, in their garbage, and fed to them by tourists and tour operators. As a result, these wild creatures are taking a liking to cities and are known to raid crops, houses, restaurants, and even mug people carrying food! The human-baboon conflict is a serious issue in some areas, and although this species is not endangered at present, it seems to be fighting a losing battle with humans. {Spotted in Botswana by JungleDragon user, dunlak} #JungleDragon
Posted 6 years ago