Who’s your Daddy? Written by Paul Weeks Video footage and photographs gratefully received from Alecia Carter and ZSL's Tsaobis Baboon Project An ASAB teaching resource

Baboon behaviour Baboons are studied in the field by researchers. Unravelling the subtleties of baboon society is challenging and relies on patient field observations. The following slides contain video footage of baboons ‘behaving’… How many behaviours do you recognise?

Introduction The Tsaobis Baboon Project is a long-term study of a desert baboon population in Namibia. Baboons are highly intelligent primates who live in large, complex social groups. Watch carefully how the baboons move – can you mimic them?

Baboon communication Baboons communicate with each other using a wide repertoire of facial expressions, noises and physical gestures. Baboons have a dominance hierarchy. The behaviours in this clip are mostly agonistic: threatening, aggressive or submissive.

Scared? A big grin or a yawn, that reveals long canines (longer than an adult lion’s!), is a threatening gesture. Baboons bark if they want to raise the alarm.

Fighting There are frequent flights between males. This can be over access to females or food or to reinforce or establish their position in the dominance hierarchy. These fights can be vicious and damaging. Ranking between males can change quite rapidly as a result of these fights, though a male can retain the alpha male status for a number of years.

Grooming This is the most important physical interaction. Grooming may play a role in some hygiene and control of ecto-parasites but it is primarily a way of cementing social relationships and position within the dominance hierarchy. Grooming can reduce stress and many baboons will fall asleep while they are being groomed.

Baboon personality Each Baboon has a unique character and personality. Remember when acting the part of a baboon the majority of your time is spent foraging or grooming…

With thanks to: The Tsaobis Baboon Project based at the Institute of Zoology, the research arm of ZSL. http://www.zsl.org/science/research- projects/tsaobis,1147,AR.html Dr Alecia Carter https://sites.google.com/site/aleciajcarter/ This powerpoint was compiled by Charlotte Evans the ASAB education officer http://asab.nottingham.ac.uk/ please email behaviour@cardiff.ac.uk for more information.