Baboons: Some Basic Information

adapted from:
Swedell, L (2010) African Papionins: Diversity of Social Organization and Ecological Flexibility. IN Primates in Perspective, Second Edition (Campbell CJ, Fuentes A, MacKinnon KC, Bearder SK, Stumpf, RM, eds). New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 241-277.

Baboons are large-bodied monkeys inhabiting a wide variety of habitats across sub-Saharan Africa, from the Horn of Africa and southwestern Arabian Peninsula to Senegal in West Africa and southwards to Cape Agulhas and the Cape of Good Hope. Habitats of baboons range from the deserts of Saudi Arabia and Namibia to the tropical dry forests and woodlands of Central Africa. Baboons are largely terrestrial, i.e., they spend most of their daylight hours on the ground, but they forage both arboreally and terrestrially and sleep in trees or on cliffs. Baboons are sexually dimorphic, i.e., females are usually about 50–60% of the size of males.

Several long-term field projects focusing on baboons have contributed greatly to our understanding of their social behavior, ecology, and evolution. The broad geographic distribution, wide array of habitats, and behavioral diversity of baboons make them particularly useful for comparative studies of socioecology. Baboons have also been used as models of human ecological and social evolution, as they are large-bodied, terrestrial, behaviorally flexible omnivores that exploit habitats broadly similar to those of early ‘hominins’, or the first members of the human lineage (Washburn and DeVore 1961; DeVore and Washburn 1963; Jolly 1970, 2001; Rose 1976; Strum and Mitchell 1987; Plummer 2004; Elton 2006; Codron et al 2008).