Olive Baboon tours in Africa – Primate safari to Uganda
Olive baboon have botanical name called Papiocynocephalus anubis
The size of a manure baboon is 14 – 30 inches at the shoulder
A mature Baboon weighs 50 – 100
The Life Span of baboon is 20 – 30 years
Baboons are mostly found in Savannahs and Woodlands
Diet: Omnivorous
Baboons take 60 months of gestation.
Like chimpanzees and Gorillas, baboons are intelligent and are capable of using tools like sticks, stones among others during their daily activities. Baboons use sticks to scoop termites, nuts, cassava, and sweet potatoes among others.
Like other primates, Baboons frequently interact with people and are capable of marking their enemies for future revenge. Baboons use over 30 vocalizations ranging from grunts, barks to screams. Nonvocal gestures include yawns, lip-smacking, and shoulder shrugging.
Characteristics of Baboons
The olive baboon is found in several parts of Uganda like Busitema, along Bujiri – Tororo – Busia road, Ishasha sector connecting Bwindi impenetrable National Park and Queen Elizabeth national park. Baboons can as well be found in other parts of the country not mentioned here.
Baboons are large and dark with a dog face.
Baboons are not only extremely adaptable but they are also found in varied habitats. The major requirements for a baboon’s habitat are safe sleeping places and water sources. When water is readily available, they drink every day or two though it believed that they can also survive for long periods by licking the night dew from their fur.
Baboons mostly walk up at around 7 or 8 am. Baboons sleep on trees and from the trees, adults sit in small groups grooming each other while the juveniles play. They then form a cohesive unit that moves off in a column of two or three, walking until they begin feeding. Baboons usually feed as they move along, often traveling five or six miles a day.
They forage for about three hours in the morning, rest during the heat of the day and then forage again in the afternoon before returning to their sleeping places by about 6 p.m. Before retiring, they spend more time in mutual grooming, a key way of forming bonds among individuals as well as keeping the baboons clean and free of external parasites.
Baboons move in a group of 50 members consisting of seven to eight males and approximately twice as many females with their young ones. These family units of infants, juveniles, and females form the stable core of a troop, with a ranking system that elevates certain females as leaders.
At the mature stage, male baboon leaves their troops and move in and out of other troops. Frequent fights break out to determine dominance over access to meat or females.
Gradually, the male Baboons are accepted into new troops slowly, usually by cohabiting with different females around the edge of a troop. They often help to defend a female and her offspring.
