The most prevalent primate in sub-Saharan Africa is this gregarious, adaptable, and extremely clever monkey. Keep your tent flaps closed and your picnic lunch out of sight because it can become a confident opportunist in areas where people are not a threat, as around safari lodges.

The majority of experts now acknowledge that the various baboon races—from the olive baboon of the Masaai Mara to the chacma baboon of the Cape—are regional variations of a same species.

An adult male baboon’s canine teeth are longer than a leopard’s. In addition to using them as deadly weapons for both self-defense and attack, he will also use them to yawn at opponents.
Like humans, baboons depend on nuanced social abilities to survive.

To improve his standing in the group, a lower-ranking male will even strategically take care of a higher-ranking female’s infant.
Omnivores include baboons. They will kill and consume creatures as big as hares or baby antelope, and they will eat anything from fruit and seed pods to bird eggs and invertebrates.

A colony of baboons will turn over a lot of stones in search of edible tidbits like scorpions, so you can tell where they have been foraging.
Baboons communicate using more than 30 vocalizations, such as cries, barks, and grunts. They also use a lot of nonverbal cues, such as shoulder shrugs, lip-smacking, and yawning.