Conservation
Baboon Conservation Across Africa
Baboons are remarkable for their ecological and behavioral flexibility. Baboon omnivory and opportunism in feeding, behavioral plasticity, and versatile substrate use all predispose them to use changing environments in new ways. One of the consequences of baboon flexibility is a level of contact between humans and baboons that does not occur in many other primates. In almost all areas where baboons occur, baboons become commensal or semi-commensal, and this leads to conflict between humans and baboons. The inevitable consequence is that baboons are injured or killed on a regular basis. Baboon-human conflict has in some areas resulted in the eradication of entire troops of baboons by humans.
In addition to this direct source of mortality for baboons, commensalism influences the behavior and biology of baboons, which can affect local ecology and population health in numerous, often negative, ways. For example, baboons that feed on human-derived foods spend far less time foraging and feeding and more time resting than wild-foraging troops, and a concentration of high-quality food in one area (as found on the urban edge, for example, compared to the more dispersed nature of natural baboon foods) also leads to reduced home range sizes and travel distances. Moreover, the availability of human food can have cascading effects on baboon reproductive parameters, life history variables, health, mortality, and social organization. At Amboseli in Kenya, baboons with regular access to food from a garbage dump experience higher infant growth rates, earlier maturation, higher infant survival, and reduced interbirth intervals compared to wild-foraging troops; these are all factors that lead to higher population growth. Baboons that consume human food are not healthier, however: baboons at Amboseli that subsist largely on food from garbage dumps are in fact 50% heavier with 21% more body fat and higher concentrations of serum insulin and cholesterol compared to wild-foraging troops, all factors suggestive of a greater risk of cardiovascular disease. Commensalism is thus, in and of itself, a threat to baboons, regardless of whether they are being persecuted by humans as well.
The bottom line is that if baboons continue to be viewed as a pest and treated as such, then they will undoubtedly be on an endangered list in the near future.
A Case Study: The Cape Peninsula Population
The dominant fauna on the Cape Peninsula of South Africa are chacma baboons. These primates are not confined in any way and thus move freely between their natural habitat and the urban environment. Virtually every troop in the Cape Peninsula has some contact with humans and human-produced food, whether it be along the highways, in urban areas, or in the Table Mountain National Park. The expanding human population combined with heavy tourism in the Cape Town area (mostly consisting of international tourists visiting the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point) has led to escalating levels of contact and conflict between baboons and humans. Consequently, the Peninsula baboons frequently interact with humans, mainly in the form of raiding of food by baboons from residential areas, cars, and individuals both within and outside of the Table Mountain National Park. These interactions often have serious negative consequences for the baboons: between 2004 and 2008 there were 123 baboon deaths recorded, 53% of which were human induced, resulting from vehicles, gunshots, powerlines and poisoning (Beamish unpublished data). Baboons continue to die from unnatural causes despite numerous and persistent attempts to alleviate the situation. The chacma baboons on the Peninsula currently benefit from limited legal protection under Proclamation No. 50/1998. This is the only baboon population in the world that enjoys this form of protection. Unfortunately, the negative sentiments felt towards the baboons by some people on the Peninsula are great enough for them to ignore these legalities and actively persecute and attempt to extirpate the baboons.
The Cape Peninsula represents a microcosm of the threat, current or future, faced by baboons throughout the continent of Africa.
Our Goals
In an effort to improve the relationship between baboons and humans in the Cape Peninsula and across Africa while contributing to conservation education in the current and next generation, we are initiating a core of baboon conservation and education resources that will:
- integrate, synthesize, and disseminate information on baboon ecology, baboon-human conflict, and baboon conservation, thereby providing a foundation upon which to engage baboon conservation across Africa, and
- use baboons as a model to educate people of all ages about ecology, biology, science, and conservation principles, thereby fostering a positive attitude towards conservation in general and greater scientific literacy and conservation awareness in the next generation (see Education).
We envision an educational hub that will not only synthesize and disseminate information on human-baboon commensalism but will also develop workable strategies that will result in a sustainable future for the interaction between baboons and humans. We have given this initiative the name Imfene, the Zulu word for baboon.
For Further Information:
Alberts SC, Altmann J (2006) The Evolutionary Past and the Research Future: Environmental Variation and Life History Flexibility in a Primate Lineage. In: Swedell L, Leigh SR (eds) Reproduction and Fitness in Baboons: Behavioral, Ecological, and Life History Perspectives. Springer, New York, pp 277-303
Jolly CJ (1993) Species, Subspecies, and Baboon Systematics. In: Kimbel WH, Martin LB, eds. Species, Species Concepts, and Primate Evolution. Plenum Press, New York, pp 67-10
Jolly CJ (2007) Baboons, Mandrills, and Mangabeys: Afro-Papionin Socioecology in a Phylogenetic Perspective. In: Campbell CJ, Fuentes A, MacKinnon KC, Panger M, Bearder SK, eds. Primates in Perspective. Oxford University Press, New York, pp 240-251.
Swedell L (2010) African Papionins: Diversity of Social Organization and Ecological Flexibility. In: Campbell CJ, Fuentes A, MacKinnon KC, Bearder SK, Stumpf RM (eds) Primates in Perspective, Second Edition. Oxford University Press, New York, pp 241-277
Larissa Swedell & Julian Saunders, 20 October 2009
