Cape baboon, Chacma baboon, Cape baboon
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 behaviours, 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 and disrupting their social structure.
Di
DiurnalDiurnal animals are active during the daytime, with a period of sleeping or other inactivity at night. The timing of activity by an animal depends ...
Om
OmnivoreAn omnivore is an animal that has the ability to eat and survive on both plant and animal matter. Obtaining energy and nutrients from plant and ani...
Scavengers are animals that consume dead organisms that have died from causes other than predation or have been killed by other predators. While sc...
Te
TerrestrialTerrestrial animals are animals that live predominantly or entirely on land (e.g., cats, ants, snails), as compared with aquatic animals, which liv...
Al
AltricialAltricial animals are those species whose newly hatched or born young are relatively immobile. They lack hair or down, are not able to obtain food ...
Zo
ZoochoryZoochory animals are those that can disperse plant seeds in several ways. Seeds can be transported on the outside of vertebrate animals (mostly mam...
No
NomadicNomadic animals regularly move to and from the same areas within a well-defined range. Most animals travel in groups in search of better territorie...
Te
TerritorialA territory is a sociographical area that which an animal consistently defends against the conspecific competition (or, occasionally, against anima...
Among animals, viviparity is the development of the embryo inside the body of the parent. The term 'viviparity' and its adjective form 'viviparous'...
Po
PolygynandryPolygynandry is a mating system in which both males and females have multiple mating partners during a breeding season.
So
SocialDo
Dominance hierarchyA dominance hierarchy (formerly and colloquially called a pecking order) is a type of social hierarchy that arises when members of animal social gr...
No
Not a migrantAnimals that do not make seasonal movements and stay in their native home ranges all year round are called not migrants or residents.
C
starts withThe Chacma baboon has a dog-like face and large, notable canine teeth. These monkey have large skull and narrow, constricted face. The tail is bent and the upper face is flexed downwards. The canines of males are much larger that these of females. The skin color of their face is purple-black. Their pelage consists of black hairs with a yellow-brown strip combined with light hairs with a black tip. Their back is covered with dark-brown to black fur while hands and feet are black. The fur on the under-parts and sides of the muzzle is lighter in color.
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.
These monkeys are diurnal, spending most of the day on the ground. They are highly sociable animals, living in troops, which consist of 20-80 individuals. 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.
These monkeys are omnivores, feeding upon various species of both plant matter and animals. The Chacma baboons consume grass, flowers, leaves, crowns of some trees such as Cypress tree, seeds such as ones of Acacia nigrens, roots, tree gums, water lilies, tubers, corms and rhizomes. Their usual diet includes also fruits such as figs or Kigelia pinnata fruit. In addition, they eat eggs, insects and small vertebrates.
These primates have polygynandrous mating system. The dominant male of a subgroup competes with other males for mating right, though females of baboons mate with a number of males during their lives. They breed at any time of the year. The gestation period lasts about six months, yielding a single baby. The newborn infant clings onto its mother’s breast, grabbing onto her fur and later rides on her back. The baby is weaned at the age of 8-12 months. The Chacma baboons reach sexual maturity between 4 and 8 years of age. By this time, females keep on living within the troop while males usually join another troop. Males reach sexual maturity at 5 years old whereas females are mature at 3 years old.
The major threats to the Chacma baboon population include hunting and involvement of the species in laboratory research. These primates are shot as vermin due to raiding crops, damaging pine plantations and preying on livestock. When obtaining food from humans, some baboons can be very aggressive and are frequently killed as "problem animals".
In the IUCN Red List, the Chacma baboon is classified as Least Concern (LC). These animals are common and widely distributed over the area of their habitat but no overall population estimate is available. The species is not endangered and the overall population is stable.
These primates form an important link in the food web of their habitat. Thus, they obtain nutrients from plants and animals they feed upon. Then they become prey species for predators of the area, making the nutrients available to these animals. Chacma baboons dig for roots, tubers, corms and rhizomes, helping to aerate the soil of the area. In addition, it's quite possible that they disperse seeds of plant species they consume.
Social animals are those animals that interact highly with other animals, usually of their own species (conspecifics), to the point of having a rec...