PRIMATES OF BOTSWANA

Baboon
Papio ursinus
The chacma baboon is Botswana's largest primate (other than man). They are slightly built, with males weighing up to 32 kg. and females 15 kg.; however, males have powerfully built shoulders, heads and jaws.  Male baboons are also equipped with razor-sharp, 2-inch canine teeth (longer than a lion's).  They have a dog-like muzzle and grey to brown hair.

Chacma baboons walk on all fours with shoulders higher than their rumps.  Their tails  appear broken in that the upper third is held upwards while the remainder hangs down limply.  Both sexes have a hard pad of hairless skin across both buttocks.  During estrus, the skin around the female's pads turns bright red and perhaps a bit unsightly to us (though not to a male baboon), advertising her to be sexually receptive.

Baboons are very social and live in troops of 30-40 members, sometimes many more, and they have a highly developed and complex social structure.  Within the troop, all adult males are dominant over all females.  Among the males there is a strict rank order and only the most dominant males mate with estrus females, although subdominant males are permitted mating rights with young and non-estrus females.  The top ranking male makes all decisions regarding troop movements.

Baboons are a diurnal species and spend their nights in one of several sleeping spots, but always out of danger, usually high up in tall trees.  They are very noisy and vocal at dawn and dusk.   During the daylight hours, they forage across the plains and in trees in search of food.  Their foraging is interrupted for lengthy periods of resting, grooming and playtime for the young.  They are often seen in the company of impala herds, whose additional eyes and ears provide extra safety from predator ambush.  Baboons are omnivorous and will eat just about anything.  Their normal diet includes roots and tubers, wild fruits, seeds and pods, leaves, young antelope on occasion, hares, rodents and birds.

Baboons use numerous vocalizations including a loud "bark" made by adult males, typically used as a warning.  They also shriek loudly when alarmed and the young baboons are especially prone to fits of hysterical screaming when being chastised by a male.  Males also make many different grunting and roaring sounds during disputes within the troop.

The baboon's enemies are leopards, lions and humans.  When confronted by danger, the dominant males fiercely protect the troop and only lions can directly confront an alerted troop in this case.  Leopards are only successful in killing a baboon by ambush and before the troop can react, otherwise, they themselves may be in danger.  Adult male baboons can inflict serious injury with their long canine teeth and they are a very aggressive and formidable animal when provoked. 

That said, baboons are usually quite peaceful and their human-like behaviors and expressions are extremely entertaining to watch.  Their social interactions with one another, the babies riding "jockey-style" on their mothers' backs or hanging upside down, clinging tightly to their mothers' bellies, their endless games, and the constant sorting out of dominance and order, all make chacma baboons one of the best safari subjects in Botswana. 

Baboons inhabit any area with tall trees for safety and plentiful food sources.  Drinking water is also essential as they must drink daily.  In Botswana, they are quite common in the Okavango Delta, along the riparian forests of the Linyanti and Kwando rivers and also in Chobe.  Camps with an abundance of baboons include DumaTau Camp, Mombo Camp and Jao Camp.

Vervet monkey
Cercopithecus aethiops
The vervet monkey is small, with silvery-grey to yellowish, coarse hair and a black face.  There is a rim of white hair across the forehead and down the cheeks.  Both sexes have long, sharp canine teeth.  Adult males have a distinctive, bright blue scrotum.

Vervets live in troops of up to 20 or more individuals.  They are diurnal and spend the night high up in tall trees, safe from most danger.  During the day, they troop forages for food in trees and on the ground, but they are very cautious when crossing open ground and when drinking water. 

All of their senses are well developed and they are constantly on the lookout for danger.  Leopards and large raptors, like the martial eagle, are their main predators.  Vervets use a constant "chutter" call whenever they see a leopard and continue with the calling until they lose sight of it.  They also react similarly to large raptors, cheetahs and lions and snakes.  They use different alarm calls for avian and terrestrial predators and another one for snakes.

Within the troop there is a well-defined rank hierarchy, especially among the adult females.  Troops are made up of families whose members eat, sleep and forage together.  The troop females are born into the troop, whereas males emigrate as they near maturity at around five years of age. 

A female offspring will inherit the rank of its mother and juveniles obtain a rank just below their mother's even amongst other adults.  This is mainly because their mother will take her offspring's part in any disputes.  Dominant females have first priority for food, water and other amenities.  Although an adult male vervet have the ability to dominate a female one on one, the female only need squeal, chatter or use threat displays to bring the assistance from the other troop females.  The threat of reinforcement from the females will usually even cause a dominant male to back down from a pair of juveniles.

Vervets are omnivorous and will eat whatever is most abundantly available.  Their diet includes wild fruits, seeds, pods, leaves, buds, flowers and herbs.  They will also eat invertebrates and occasionally lizards, bird eggs and nestlings.  Vervets are also notorious pilferers in safari camps and will dart out of the trees to snatch items from a buffet or lunch table.  They will just as quickly retreat to eat the items while looking down on you.  They also learn to work out tent zippers to break in and steal any food you may have; for this reason, it is best not to bring food into your tent on a safari.

Vervet monkeys are one of Africa's most widespread monkeys, with several recognized sub-species.  In Botswana they are found throughout the islands of the Okavango Delta, along the northern riparian forests of the Linyanti / Kwando regions and throughout the forested areas of Chobe.

Lesser bushbaby
Galago senegalensis
Bushbabies are small, totally nocturnal primates with large frontally-positioned eyes and long, bat-like ears.  They have greatly elongated hind legs to assist in their incredible leaps through the trees in which they forage.  They are widely considered to be the closest living relatives of the earliest primates.

The lesser bushbaby is smaller than a squirrel and weighs only one-third of a pound.  Their fur is grey to grey-brown, with white to cream-colored neck and under parts.  This is the most common and widespread of bush babies, found exclusively in woodland areas.  They are completely at home in the thorniest acacia thickets, where few other animals dare to venture, thus providing them with security from predation.

They are completely nocturnal and mostly arboreal. They spend their days sleeping in family groups and foraging alone during the night.  They make nests of leaves for sleeping, but will also sleep in dense foliage or tree holes.   Both sexes are territorial and polygamous.

Bushbabies can leap a distance up to 5 meters between trees and branches and they use their tails as mid-air rudders to correct their trajectory.  They are able to leap and land safely into thick acacia thorns without injury.  Their long slender fingers have wide, flattened tips which are adapted for catching swift moving insects and for grasping branches.  Bushbabies are not able to move and control their fingers separately and independently; they are therefore unable to groom themselves in "normal" primate manner.  Instead, they employ their second toe, which acts as a grooming claw and incisor scraper.

The lesser bushbaby feeds mainly on tree gum, particularly acacia gum, which it eats with specially-adapted, comb-like lower teeth.  They also feed on various insects.  They are amazingly adept at catching flying insects out of thin air with their hands in almost complete darkness.  Bushbabies have exceptional eyesight and their highly mobile, antennae-like ears are adapted for locating insects by sound.

The lesser bushbaby is very vocal; their voice is a long, shrill and plaintive cry, almost like the sound of a human baby crying.  They also have many different and softer calls, from croaks to "chitters" and grunts.  They are preyed upon by nocturnal birds of prey and occasionally snakes and genets, but they are adept at escaping predation using their superb leaping ability.