Baboons Introduction

Baboons are the contributors of the Old world Monkey community which is known as the Cercpithecide. Most of the baboons are observed in the south of the Sahara in Africa and the Saudi Arabia desert. The baboons consist of five subspecies of baboons which are the Guinea, the hamadryas, the yellow, the olive baboons and the chacma.

Baboons being the most famous primate in South Africa, they are identified of being able to adapt quickly. Therefore, they can be found in most of the surroundings. For example, these sorts of baboons have been found in the most of the places such as the rainforest, the semi-desert and from the mountains areas to coastal. They possess the ability of extended adaptation in feeding habits; they will eat anything as long as it is edible. They have a different kind of diet especially parts of the plants such as the leaves of the plants, the fruits the flowers, the bulbs, the roots, the shoots, the seeds, the sap and even the barks. For the case of meat, they mostly consume small reptiles, insects, shellfish as well as the amphibians, birds, rodents, eggs, fish, livestock and even young antelopes (Eley et al 215).

More than few baboons live in many parts of Africa and the components of southwestern Arabia. This kind of species that are mostly found in the southwest of Arabia and Africa include the Chacma baboon which mostly they stay in the open woodlands and the rocky areas in parts of southern Africa as well as the Hamadryas which habitat is in the rocky hills and on the plains of the Saudi Arabia, the eastern part of Africa near the red sea and Yemen. Olive baboons mostly they lives in Kekopeye cattle rank locate around the Gilgil town in Kenya. The ranch which is part of central comprise of the open grassland studded with occasional patches of bushy shrub, small groves of giant fever trees and the scattered thorn bush. The consume many of the foods such as the herbs, fruits of bushes, flowers insects and above the most substantial being the grass. They consume green blades of the grass especially during the rainy season as well they when the ranch is dry they dig corns the underground storage of sedge grasses. They can carry food with them using their cheeks.

Most of the vicious predators of the baboons are mainly carnivores including the leopards and the cheetah. Most of the baboons sleep and live on the ground, but such areas are on the cliffs and the trees (Strum &Shirley 134). In Africa, baboons they can protect themselves from the natural predators by sleeping in cliffs and tall trees. They live in groups whereby most of them sleep in different cliffs and trees, but at some point, they can share one place of resting on the same trees. Baboons share their range with most of the predators such as the African Buffalo, jackals, warthog and the zebras (Strum &Shirley 143).

There is a number of the characteristics and the physical features of the primates, but there are some exceptions in some of the cardinals in that they don’t show the same features (Strum 215). Approximately all of them show the corresponding element which is the ability to grasp objects with their feet and hands, this feature in exhibited in baboons. At least most of them have their fingers and toes as well they have nails rather than laws. Vision being part of the critical sense they have, most of them have well-developed eyes that can see distant places as well as the ability to judge in depth. Their eyes are placed in front somewhat in the sideways to allow them to focus and see distant predators. Another distinctive feature which includes the dental structure and the similar skeletal, as per their physical outlook, they are well suited with the tree-dwelling life, for example, they can grasp during climbing and traveling through the trees. With the presence of the cheek pouches, they can eat and run (Strum 211). They have naked face and ears. Baboons have sharp canine teeth, long and broad head, as well the muzzle which is like that of a dog, their legs and arms as almost of the same size. Baboons have tails that are long like two feet while others have short and stumpy tails. Female baboons are much smaller as compared with the male baboon’s ass well males has long canine teeth. Regarding weight, males weigh up to 90 pounds while females weigh almost 23 to 24 pounds. Their body lengths vary since ranges from between 50 to 60 centimeters as well more substantial than the olive and the yellow to be the largest (Strum 219).

Baboons are capable of adapting to different kinds of environments without necessarily changing their habitat. For example, is the olive baboons which live in medium to a big group that consists of many males and females. Their troops function as the organized unit which is fundamentally related females. Males transfer to other troops when they are at the time of sexual maturity as well females they remain in their biological troops (Shirley et al 98).

Fully-grown up females arrange linear dominance hierarchies that stay relatively stable for a considerable period. The relationship between males is usually aggressive as compared to those of the females. This is because, most of the males are not related, and they are mainly in the completion of the female baboons, therefore the result of the competition which is a dominance hierarchy that is determined by the capability of age, size, and fighting (Shirley et al., 102).

Conclusion

In conclusion, baboons are of different and at the same time they habitat different in places due to different abilities of adaptation. They have features that make them away from their main predators such the cheetah and the leopards as well as the presence of nails that help them to grasp trees when they climb to ran away from their predator.

Work Cited

Bercovitch, Fred B., and Shirley C. Strum. “Dominance rank, resource availability, and reproductive maturation in female savanna baboons.” Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 33.5 (1993): 313-318.

Eley, R. M., et al. ”Nutrition, body condition, activity patterns, and parasitism of free‐ranging troops of olive baboons (Papio anubis) in Kenya.” American Journal of Primatology 18.3 (1989): 209-219.

Strum, Shirley C. ”Prospects for management of primate pests.” Symposium” Les primates commensaux”, tenu à Strasbourg, France, le 19 août 1994, à l’occasion du XIVe congrès de la Société internationale de Primatologie. Société nationale de protection de la nature et d’acclimatation de France, Paris (FRA), 1994.

Strum, S. C. ”Weight and age in wild olive baboons.” American Journal of Primatology 25.4 (1991): 219-237.

Strum, Shirley C. ”The development of primate raiding: implications for management and conservation.” International Journal of Primatology 31.1 (2010): 133-156.

Strum, Shirley C. Almost human: A journey into the world of baboons. University of Chicago Press, 1987.

Strum, Shirley C., and William Mitchell. ”Baboon models and muddles.” The evolution of human behavior: Primate models (1987): 87-104.