How Different Are Gashaka’s Baboons? Forest and Open Country Populations Compared

Abstract

Our long-term study of baboons in Gashaka Gumti National Park (GGNP) is one of very few that looks at West African baboons, and is also unusual because it focuses on animals living in a forested environment with high annual rainfall. Here, we present data on troop size, activity budgets, ranging behaviour, diet, and life-history, and compare these data with those from other baboon study sites. The troop sizes at GGNP are significantly smaller than many other baboon populations, and this may be linked to low predation pressure at the site. The high productivity and floral diversity at GGNP allow animals to avoid eating difficult to process subterranean foods and feed on preferred foods such as fruits and seeds. The diet of wild-feeding animals at the site is diverse, and includes a high proportion of fruit and low proportion of leaves, subterranean items, and animal foods when compared with other baboon populations. Gestation length, cycle length, and length of post-partum amenorrhea for the wildfeeding K troop are typical of baboons but the inter-birth interval in this population is significantly longer than that found in most other baboon populations due to a long duration of cycling. The high rainfall at GGNP may increase disease risk, forcing wild-feeding mothers to invest heavily in their offspring, resulting in a long period of cycling before successful pregnancy and hence a long inter-birth interval.

The Biogeography of the Papio Baboons: A GIS-Based Analysis of Range Characteristics and Variability

“…Despite their access to crops, however, the Gamgam troop is smaller, with an average of 19.3 individuals and a range of 14-23 compared to the Kwano troop's 28.4, range 26-35 . A study of their ecologies by Ross et al [2011] also noted that the Gamgam troop spends more time resting and socialising, travels further in an average day and reproduces at shorter interbirth intervals and with lower infant mortality than do their neighbours. These reproductive effects are likely linked to crop-raiding and anthropogenic influence, but the influences of humans on troop size, activity budgets and ranging are probably smaller .…”

“…The kinda baboon range was described by Jolly et al [2011], the first to recognise its distinctive morphology and genetics, as taking in the extreme SW of Tanzania, Zambia, the S Democratic Republic of the Congo and most of Angola, in keeping with the IUCN maps. mann, 1970;Altmann et al, 1981;Altmann and Muruthi, 1988;Altmann et al, 2002] and Gashaka Gumti [Warren, 2008;Ross et al, 2011;Warren et al, 2011]. These 3 case studies were chosen for their high-quality data, which allowed for comparisons between the environments of adjacent troops at De Hoop and Gashaka, and of one troop over a prolonged period of environmental change at Amboseli.…”

Antelope Predation by Nigerian Forest Baboons: Ecological and Behavioural Correlates

“…Since the year 2000, we have collected data on two baboon troops in GGNP [Higham et al, 2009;Warren et al, 2011;Ross et al, 2011], the Gamgam troop (in previous publications sometimes referred to as 'Gashaka troop' or CR, i.e. crop-raiding, troop) and the Kwano troop (previously the NR, i.e.…”

Baboon biogeography, divergence, and evolution: Morphological and paleoecological perspectives

“…An alternative explanation is that the Mandrillus-Soromandrillus ancestor evolved in dense forest, increasing its body mass to reduce competition with other species, with Soromandrillus then moving into more open areas. Other lineages expanded into terrestrial niches in woodland and bushland and largely kept to such habitats, although some taxa (P. hamadryas, T. gelada and middle Pleistocene T. oswaldi) evolved to exploit much more open grassland / desert habitats, and others (some P. anubis populations [Rowell, 1966;Ross et al, 2011], and potentially Parapapio broomi [Elton, 2001]) denser forest. Among the large papionin species there seems to be no consistent relationship between body mass and habitat preference, given that Mandrillus sphinx, the largest modern monkey, exists in tropical forest and T. oswaldi, the largest monkey ever to have existed, inhabited grassland, emphatically so towards the end of its tenure (Cerling et al, 2013).…”