The Disregarded West: Diet and Behavioural Ecology of Olive Baboons in the Ivory Coast

Abstract

Despite living under environmental conditions considerably distinct from those of savannah baboons (Papio spp.) in East and southern Africa, very little is known about western Papio populations. We monitored the abundance and group sizes of olive baboons (P. anubis) in the savannah-forest mosaic of the Comoé National Park, northern Ivory Coast, and observed 2 habituated groups of different sizes. Against expectations for the kind of habitat, the individual density was low, yielding only 1.2 baboons/km². The groups were small, comprising on average 15 individuals, and the proportion of 1-male groups (50–63%) was remarkably high. One-male groups were more female biased than multi-male groups. The baboons were highly frugivorous, spending about 50% of their feeding time on fruits and seeds of at least 79 woody plant species. The 2 habituated groups had comparatively large home ranges and used forests more often than expected by random. We argue that regular subgrouping of the larger focal group and different habitat quality countervailed inter-group variations. Differences from other study sites, however, are not completely explained by current models of baboon (socio)ecology. It appears that the social organization of olive baboons is more flexible than assumed from data on East African populations.

Food choices and habitat use by the Tana River yellow baboons (Papio cynocephalus): a preliminary report on five years of data

“…However, only five of these 19 populations have published data on the nutritional content of those choices (i.e. Laikipia, Amboseli, Drakensberg, Kuiseb, and Okavango) and only one of these, Amboseli, is for yellow baboons (Papio cynocephalus) [Altmann, 1998;Hill et al, 2000;Kunz & Linsenmair, 2008].…”

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

“…However, troop sizes at GGNP are far below the maximum tolerable mean of 71 these models would predict for the GGNP climate. Kunz & Linsenmair (2008) relate the similarly small troop sizes at Comoé to a combination of low baboon population density and low predation pressure.…”

“…The climate data used in the testing of predictive models all come from data collected at Kwano research station and Gashaka village from 2000-2008). Data on baboon socioecology come from both study troops, but only those for the wild-feeding K troop are used in most comparisons with other wild-feeding baboon populations.…”

The value of disturbance-tolerant cercopithecine monkeys as seed dispersers in degraded habitats

“…The largest seed recorded being swallowed for each species (N = 8) is significantly related to body size (Pearson's correlation: r = 0.792, p = 0.02) with seeds as long as 42 mm being swallowed by Mandrillus leucophaeus (Astaras and Waltert, 2010) the largest cercopithecine (Appendix B). In fact, some larger cercopithecine taxa are able to disperse by endozoochory seeds of a comparative size range as apes (Kunz and Linsenmair, 2008).…”

“…Papio species vary in their tolerance to habitat disturbance, but they are considered effective dispersers because they transport seeds over long distances and across a variety of habitats (Kunz and Linsenmair, 2008) and have been documented dispersing primary forest tree species into logged plantations (Duncan and Chapman, 2002). In savanna habitats, they are among the few dispersers that can disperse seeds across fence lines (Slater and du Toit, 2002) and are considered principal dispersers of several invasive plant species (Mworia et al, 2011;Reinhardt and Rossouw, 2000).…”