Baboon mating behavior
varies greatly depending on the social structure. In the mixed groups of
savannah baboons, each male can mate with any female. The allowed mating order
among the males depends partially on the ranking, and fights between males are
not unusual.
There are however more
subtle possibilities; males sometimes try to win the friendship of females. To
garner this friendship, they may help groom the female, help care for her
young, or supply them with food. Some females clearly prefer such friendly
males as mates. However, males will also take infants during fights in order to
protect themselves from harm.
A female initiates mating
by presenting her swollen rump to the male. But 'presenting' can also be used
as a submissive gesture and is observed in males as well.
In the harems of the
Hamadryas Baboon, the males jealously guard their females, to the point of
grabbing and biting the females when they wander too far away. Despite this,
some males will raid harems for females. In such situations it often comes to
aggressive fights by the males. Visual threats are usually accompanied by these
aggressive fights. This would include a quick flashing of the eyelids
accompanied by a yawn to show off the teeth. Some males succeed in taking a
female from another's harem. This is called a 'takeover'.
Females typically give
birth every other year, usually to a single infant, after a six month
gestation. The young baboon weighs approximately one kilogram and is colored
black. The females tend to be the primary caretaker of the young, although
several females will share the duties for all of their offspring.
In mixed groups males
sometimes help in caring for the young of the females they are friendly with,
for instance they gather food for them and play with them. The probability is
high that those young are their offspring. After about one year, the young
animals are weaned. They reach sexual maturity in five to eight years.
In baboons males leave
their birth group, usually before they reach sexual maturity, whereas females
are 'philopatric' and stay in the same group their whole life.
The Hamadryas Baboon was a
sacred animal to the ancient Egyptians as the attendant of Thoth, and so, is
also called the Sacred Baboon. The English word Baboon is thought to
derive from the name of the Egyptian baboon-god Babi.
There are five recognised
species of Papio, although there is some disagreement about whether they
are really full species or subspecies. They are P. ursinus (Chacma Baboon,
found in southern Africa), P. papio (Western or Guinea Baboon, found in
Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea), P. hamadryas (Hamadryas Baboon, found in
north-east Africa and into south-western Arabia), P. anubis (Olive
Baboon, found in central African savanna) and P. cynocephalus (Yellow
Baboon, found in Angola, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya, Somalia). Many
authors distinguish P. hamadryas as a full species, but regard all the
others as subspecies of P. cynocephalus and refer to them collectively
as "savanna baboons". This may not be helpful: while behaviorally and
physically distinct from other baboon types, the Hamadryas baboon is known to
hybridize with olive baboons, and recent phylogenetic studies of Papio
show Hamadryas baboons to be more closely related to guinea and olive baboons
than to chacmas.[3]
The traditional 5-form
classification probably under-represents the variation within Papio. Some
commentators[4] would argue that at least two more forms
should be recognized, including the very small Kinda Baboon (P. kindae)
from Zambia, the DRC, and Angola, and the Gray-footed Baboon (P. griseipes)
found in Zambia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and northern South Africa. However,
current knowledge of the morphological, genetic, and behavioral diversity
within Papio is too poor to make any final, comprehensive judgments on
baboon taxonomy.
Genus Papio[5]
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Baboon&action=history
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