Baboon

1.    A baboon is a monkey which lives in Africa and Asia.

2.    You’ll find them mostly in the open woodlands, hills and the savannah of Africa.

3.    They can suit themselves well to various environments as long as they can find water and food there.

4.    These ground-roving monkeys are intelligent, fierce and boisterous animals that live in groups both big and small.

5.    They eat both plants and meat- roots, grasses, leaves, seeds, fruits, flowers, tree bark, insects, scorpions, fowl, fish, shellfish, rodents, birds, goats, antelopes, small monkeys, eggs etc.

6.    When it is cold, they warm themselves by cuddling together.

7.    Because of the spread of human settlements, agricultural fields, irrigation projects etc, baboons are losing their natural habitats.

8.    They have lived together with their human ancestors for thousands of years though.

9.    We share more than 90% of our genes with them.

10.                      The oldest baboon may have lived 2 million years ago or even before that.

11.                      Baboons communicate among themselves with various calls, each of which conveys something different.

12.                      When sending out an alarm they bark like a dog.

13.                      To keep a watchful eye on their human, hyena, lion, leopard, wild dog and cheetah predators, they climb trees.

14.                      They fall asleep on trees’ branches.