Biggest Monkeys in the World
The biggest baboon in South Africa. Males can weigh as much as 45 kilograms (99 pounds) and be 1.7 meters (5.6 feet) tall, although most males weigh only 20 to 30 kilograms (44 to 66 pounds). Their body is covered with brownish-gray hair that turns yellowish in old age, while their faces are often black or bright pink.
Colorful Baboon
Intelligent Monkeys
Physical Characteristics
A troop of baboons may have as many as 300 members, but most troops only have 50-150. Sometimes, baboons will band together to form clans with as many as 1,000 individuals! To survive in groups, baboon must communicate well with one another. Communication includes vocalizations (i.e., barks and grunts), facial expressions, posture displays, and gestures. Body language can mean everything to these highly social primates; it’s how they avoid conflict or mark territory. (Learn more about animal body language.)
Why Are They Endangered?
According to environmentalists, baboons are threatened with extinction for two main reasons. One of them is habitat loss. Even though baboons live in Africa, their habitats are fast disappearing as humans cut down forests and build roads and towns. Although baboons can survive in arid conditions, they need access to water every day. Poachers will also hunt them because they believe that baboons attack people or destroy farms. In some parts of Africa, people eat baboon meat. Since much of their food comes from crops farmers grow on land that used to be a dense jungle, there’s very little natural food left for them to eat when farming grows more popular in an area.
Incredible Facts About Baboon
Baboons are some of the world’s largest monkeys, and males of different species can grow to be more than three feet tall, with an arm span that stretches to five and a half feet. Males weigh about 37 pounds on average. Female baboons are smaller than males and only weigh about 22 pounds. The animals live in social groups called troops, which can range from 15-to 200 individuals, although there may be as many as 1,000 baboons living within one troop during mating season. There are four species of wild baboons: yellow baboons, chacma baboons, olive baboons, and hamadryas baboons. Wild hamadryas aren’t found in Africa; they can only be seen in parts of southern Arabia or Iran…