Kinda baboons (Papio kindae) and grayfoot chacma baboons (P. ursinus griseipes) hybridize in the Kafue river valley, Zambia

Abstract

The ranges of small kinda (Papio kindae) and much larger grayfooted chacma (P. ursinus griseipes) baboons adjoin in the Kafue National Park, Zambia. In a visual survey of baboons at 48 sites in the Kafue River drainage we found that, contrary to previous reports, groups at the species interface near the town of Ngoma are phenotypically diverse and presumably formed by multigenerational hybridization. Mitochondrial and/or Y-chromosome genetic markers from fecal samples (N=164) collected at 29 sites support this conclusion. Groups with phenotypic signs of a history of hybridization also had taxon-specific mitochondria and Y-haplotypes from both parental species. Although the distribution of mitochondrial haplotypes largely mirrored that of external phenotypes, a significant proportion of male specimens from grayfoot as well as hybrid groups carried kinda Y-chromosomes, and kinda Y-chromosomes were involved in all observed cases of mitochondrial/Y-chromosome discordance. These observations are consistent with, though they do not prove, a population history in which the range of chacmas and the hybrid zone have advanced at the expense of the kinda range. They also suggest that, unexpectedly, kinda male×chacma female matings are much more common than the reciprocal cross in the ancestry of hybrids. We suggest that distinctive male kinda behavior and the "juvenile" appearance of kinda baboons of both sexes, perhaps combined with obstetric difficulties of a small kinda female carrying the large offspring of a chacma male, may account for this bias.

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

“…These focus on differences in the ecologies of baboons in the national parks at De Hoop [Hill, 1999], Amboseli [Altmann and Alt- These areas of difference primarily affect the chacma baboon range in Botswana and Namibia, and the appropriate parts of each range description are emphasised in italics. 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].…”

Genome typing of nonhuman primate models: implications for biomedical research

“…Moreover, there is evidence for ancient and ongoing intrageneric hybridization between most species of these genera in areas where their ranges meet [6,12,[56][57][58][59]. Continuing hybridization over generations may lead to the transfer of certain genes into the genome of another species, a process called 'introgression'.…”

Divergence-with-Gene-Flow—What Humans and Other Mammals Got up to

“…In particular, both of these analyses, which sampled widely from the geographical distribution of Papio, found that rather than being a sister lineage, Rungwecebus clustered within the baboon clade. This result indicated that, like other Old World monkeys, such as macaques and indeed many members of the genus Papio (e.g., Stevison and Kohn 2009;Osada et al 2010;Jolly et al 2011), the evolutionary history of the kipunji included episodes of divergence-with-gene-exchange.…”