Baboons are a well studied primate, with extensive data from numerous long-term field sites from various ecological contexts across Africa. Underrepresented in this sample, however, are woodland/forest population. In this thesis I investigated the diet and movement ecology in a woodland/forest population of yellow baboons (Papio cynocephalus) at the Issa valley of Ugalla, western Tanzania. I begin by describing the diet of Issa baboons using macroscopic faecal analysis. 1 show they selectively exploited the environment according to the availability of fruits, and unlike for their savannah conspecifics, there appeared to be sufficient food alternatives during periods of low fruit availability. Using day path lengths (DPL) 1 examined what factors are important in determining movement of baboons at a continental scale. Using a mixed modelling approach with data from 39 baboon troops form sub-Saharan Africa, I show factors to be important on a continental scale include plant productivity, anthropogenic influence, primate richness and group size. Next, 1 explored the movement ecology of baboons at a local scale in two ways, using baboons at Issa. First I examined the DPL and Path Trajectories (PTs: speed and tortuosity) where I find they moved slower and over shorter distances on warmer days, and slower and more directly when fruit was more abundant. Second I examined patterns of space use within their home ranges (HR). I find sleep site availability and habitat type significantly influence movement within HRs and that the forest habitat is avoided whilst rocky outcrops are preferred. Additionally, I find PTs were predicted by habitat type, with baboons moving faster and straighter through habitats they tended to avoid. Finally, I explored the potential for competition between baboons at Issa with sympatric chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) by comparing their diet and patterns of habitat use. I show that despite periods of high overlap in fruits consumed, competition between these primates is unlikely to be important due to key dietary differences and differential utilisation of habitat types.

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Before this study, the Guinea or Western baboon, Papio papio, was almost unknown in its natural environment. This thesis reports a nineteen-month field study of two troops of P. papio carried out in south-eastern Senegal. The monkeys were followed on foot, and aspects of their feeding, ranging and social behaviour were recorded. The troops were censused whenever possible. Both study groups, and other troops in the area, were found to be unusually large by comparison with other known troops in the genus, and although their age-sex compositions were not exceptional, there was some indication that recruitment into the adult population was low. The activity budgets of both troops were similar, and members of both troops spent more time moving and feeding in the dry season than they did in the wet, when they spent more time in social behaviour. These differences were probably related to seasonal changes in productivity, which were large, since no rain feel in six months of the year. The home range of one of the study troops covered about 45 to 50 square kilometres, while the other troop, whose home range was less well known, ranged over about 18 to 20 square kilometres. There were no seasonal differences in the mean distance travelled per day by either troop, although there was great daily variation about the mean of roughly 8 kilometres. This distance was greater than that travelled by most other troops of baboons, and was ascribed to low productivity in the dry season and large troops in the wet. The troops visited some habitats more frequently than they did others, and moved more slowly through those that they visited frequently than through those that they visited frequently than through those they visited less frequently. In the dry season both troops visited areas in which there was relatively dense shade more frequently than they did areas with little shade. In the wet season they avoided areas in which variability was poor. Sleeping sites were found to have a profound influence on the ranging patterns of the baboons, with usage of the home ranges being inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the nearest sleeping site. The baboons apparently chose to sleep in trees which afforded them protection against predation. The sleeping sites were restricted to places in which there was permanent water. The baboons were largely frugivorous. In this they resembled baboon troops studied in other areas. Their diet changed throughout the year, as various plants fruited or seeded, and was more diverse in the wet season, when a wider variety of foods was available. More than a hundred different food items were known to be eaten, and the number of known food types increased throughout the study. Animals in their diet were mostly invertebrates found beneath boulders, but some vertebrates were also eaten. The social organisation and mating system of these baboons were compared with those of the other baboons, including Theropithecus gelada. It was unlikely that they lived in a society in which adult females were constrained to mate with only one male, as are females in two other species of baboon. Instead, there appeared to be competition for sexual partners, with the formation of consortships between adults during the time of the female’s oestrus. Adult males groomed each other in this species, which is uncommon in baboons with competitive mating, except at times of stress.

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Okaukuejo 1993 / This study was designed to investigate the eco-physiology of baboons (Papio cynocephalus ursinus) in a troop living in the Kuiseb River canyon of the central Namib desert, Namibia. Answers were sought for two major questions: what Were the baboons prospects for survival and were there special adaptations allowing for their survival in their desert environment? To answer the former, life history phenomena of individuals and demographic changes within the troop were studied over a six year period. Results showed that the troop was not self-sustaining. Ectco-parasite infestations killed the majority of infants born to high ranking female baboons, while infant kidnapping by high ranking females killed most lower ranking females' infants. The high infant mortality appeared to affect the behaviour of adult male baboons in the troop, causing non-paternal males to fight harder to maintain a rank with reproductive opportunities, usually with serious wounding or death as a consequence. Answers to the latter question involved investigation into the baboons feeding patterns and diet, body temperature regulation, water flux rates and methods of body water conservation. Despite their desert environment, the baboons had access to plants of high water content and Were not dependent on free water intake. Plant foods also had low electrolyte concentrations. Body temparetures of three free-ranging baboons recorded by intraperitoneal radio tolemeters were remarkably labile, indicating an adaptive heterothermy. The baboons appeared to employ evaporative cooling only when water was available to drink and used cool sub-surface sand to slow their body temperature rises. water flux rates determined using tritiated water of three free-ranging baboons were not different to those of baboons from elsewhere. Acquisition of free water at times of water scarcity was strictly rank related. Body water conservation was apparently achieved through a combination of factors: urine concentration of Kuiseb baboons increased significantly when they were water deprived. The kidneys of the Kuiseb baboons, obtained from baboons that died naturally were anatomically significantly different and head greater urine concentrating abilities than the kidneys Of baboons from the northern Transvaal, South Africa. Kuiseb baboons showed efficient faecal water conservation, similar to other desert adapted mammals, Body water also was apparently conserved by engaging in water conservative behaviour, predominantly inactivity.

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MSc (Med), Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand / I investigated the relationship between abdominal temperature, physical activity, anogenital swellings, and faecal and urine ovarian steroid hormonal concentrations over the menstrual cycle in baboons in an attempt to devise a reliable non-hormonal physiological indicator to detect ovulation. Using a miniature thermometric data logger surgically implanted in the abdominal cavity and an activity data logger implanted subcutaneously on the trunk, I measured, continuously over six months at a 10 min interval, abdominal temperature and physical activity patterns in four female adult baboons, Papio hamadryas ursinus (12.9-19.9 kg), unrestrained in cages in an indoor animal facility (22-25°C). I monitored menstrual bleeding, and anogenital swelling changes using digital photography, and collected urine and faeces, daily, to ascertain the stage and length of the menstrual cycle. The length of the menstrual cycle, determined from daily observations of menstrual bleeding and anogenital swellings, was 36 ± 2 days (mean ± SD). Baboons exhibited a cyclic change in anogenital swellings, abdominal temperature, physical activity, urine and faecal steroid hormones over the menstrual cycle. Mean 24-h abdominal temperature during the luteal phase was significantly higher (ANOVA, p = 0.04; F (2,9) = 4.7) than during the ovulatory phase, but not different to the follicular phase. Physical activity also followed a similar pattern, with mean 24 h physical activity almost twice as high in the luteal than in the ovulatory phase (ANOVA, p = 0.58; F (2,12) = 5.8). As expected, urine and faecal oestradiol was higher in the follicular than in the luteal phase, while progesterone was higher in the luteal than the follicular phase. Cortisol in both urine and faecal samples did not show any vi recognisable menstrual cycle related pattern. I have characterised correlates of the menstrual cycle in baboons and shown, for the first time, a rhythm of physical activity over the baboon menstrual cycle. I have also shown, from the measurements of abdominal temperature, physical activity, ovarian steroid hormonal concentrations and anogenital swellings, that ovulation in captive unrestrained baboons, and probably also free-living baboons, can be estimated from anogenital swellings or possibly abdominal temperature and physical activity, without the need for hormone measurements.

Master of Science - Science / Positive affective states guide the proximate performance of the appetitive and consummatory components of behaviours, such as foraging, that ultimately increase an animal’s fitness. Accordingly, promoting foraging in captive animals can enhance their welfare, defined as a predominance of positive (e.g. pleasure) over negative (e.g. stress) affective states. In three sets of experiments, I examined social foraging in two captive baboon troops housed at the Johannesburg Zoo, South Africa. I investigated (1) whether watching a demonstrator baboon forage cued conspecific observers to also forage; (2) how two factors known to influence the social transfer of foraging information and the motivation to forage (demonstrator status and hunger/satiation respectively) affected whether an animal was cued to forage upon watching a demonstrator forage; (3) the psychological mechanism through which this change in motivation to forage occurred; and (4) how socially-cued foraging behaviour could be incorporated into environmental enrichment protocols. I recorded the frequency of foraging for individual baboons and for each troop as a whole. I also scored the incidence of aggression in both troops. Upon watching a demonstrator forage from a monopolisable food source, observers increased their foraging efforts elsewhere in the enclosure. Demonstrator identity influenced the incidence of foraging by observers, with how well the demonstrator predicted food reward, rather than its status per se, determining observer foraging frequency. The psychological mechanism mediating the increase in foraging behaviour, as well as the effect of observer hunger/satiation on foraging, were unclear. The increased frequency of foraging by observers was accompanied by only a small rise in aggression. My data indicate that the use of social cues to motivate foraging behaviour could be employed to augment standard foraging enrichment protocols aimed at improving the welfare of captive animals.

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