Guinea Baboon

Cercopithicidae

Guinea Baboons are primates, big monkeys, with a dog-like head.  Adult males have knife-sharp canine teeth and have fully opposable thumbs and forefingers.  They are reddish-brown in color with a coarse coat.  Males are larger than females and have mane-like hair around their shoulders.  Females have a pink rump.   Their tail is of equal length with their bodies.  Baboons can move on all fours or climb through trees and may occasionally carry objects and walk on two feet for short distances..

Guinea Baboons communicate usine vocalizations, facial expressions (grimaces, threats), body postures, and coloration (of the sexual swellings) to communicate.

They are found throughout the savannah and arid zones of extreme West Africa, wherever water and secure sleeping places (trees or cliffs) are found.  They live in complex groups, called troops, with many females and males (they can be as small as 8 or as large as 200, but usually they include 30 to 40 animals).  One male and one to four females form subgroups within the larger social group.   Females usually spend their entire life in the same troop while males transfer troops repeatedly.  Females have a strict and stable rank order and the daughters inherit their mother?s rank.  Social grooming is an important behavior that helps strengthen and maintain social bonds among females and between a male and a female when she is ready for reproduction.  Grooming also serves a hygienic function.  Males are ready to breed at 5-6 years of age while females are ready at 4.5 to 5 years but in captivity, the breeding age is younger.

Females give birth to one baby every few years.  The infant has pink skin and black hair, which starts to change to the adult color in its third month.  Babies move well at one month and at 3-4 months, they begin to play with one another.  They are independent at 1.5 years but continue to associate with their mother and other relatives.

Guinea baboons eat a variety of plants (grasses, tubers, bulbs, roots, leaves, buds, flowers, fruits, and seeds).  They also eat invertebrates and an occasional vertebrate.  Their predators are leopards, lions and hyenas.  Eagles and jackals can take small infants but a cooperative effort by adults usually prevents this.

Guinea baboons are not endangered but they may become threatened because their habitats are being destroyed.