Chakma or bear baboon (lat. Papio ursinus) is considered one of the largest and most dangerous baboons. The body length of this primate from the monkey family often reaches 115 cm with a weight of about 31 kg. Unlike other types of baboons, he does not wear mane, his strong and muscular body is covered with gray or brown hair. The elongated dark red muzzle is a bit like a dog. There are whitish rings around deep-set eyes.
Bear baboons live in the southern part of the African continent. Here, their range includes countries such as Angola, Mozambique, Zambia and South Africa. Moreover, the size of primates and their coat color in different regions are different. So, for example, the smallest chakmas live in the Kalahari desert.
The character of these monkeys is so absurd that local residents recommend staying away from them. And not in vain, because bear baboons easily deal with hunting dogs and are even able to organize organized attacks. Local shepherds have repeatedly been powerless witnesses of how baboons left their dogs with the nose and stole from the herd of newborn lambs.
Their natural enemy - - knows very well that you can only hunt cubs, and even that, with great care, otherwise he can coolly get in his moustached face. In case of danger, the strongest males from the pack quickly hide the females with the cubs inside the circle, and they themselves with special ferocity expose their sharp fangs, ready at any moment to tear the offender to pieces.
Looking at the long and scary teeth of bear baboons, it’s easy to guess that they feed not only on fruits and roots. In addition to plant foods, insects, small vertebrates, bird eggs and birds themselves are included in their diet. Sometimes they kill leopard kittens or antelope calves, and those that live near the Cape of Good Hope diversified their menu with shark eggs and bivalves.
Bear baboons live in large mixed groups of 30-40 individuals with one male at the head. During the day they roam the earth in search of food, but they remain alert all the time, ready at any time to climb a tree. With the onset of dusk, they spend the night in caves, climb cliffs or huge trees, in general, hide where predators cannot reach them.
Bear baboons have an interesting social structure. The flock is headed by the strongest male, who controls the weaker with the help of intimidation. He often attacks young males and hits them to remind who is in charge. But when meeting with another flock of aggressively-minded baboons, it was he who was to fight the leader of the group in order to protect his charges. And very often, such fights end in the death of the loser.
Among females, there is also a certain hierarchy. That lucky girl who enjoys the leader's increased attention is considered the most important. Moreover, her children also enjoy special honor among members of the pack.
Of course, such an enviable "position in society" wants to take any of the "ladies." Nevertheless, females allow the dominant male to come to him only during ovulation, but in another period they readily twist novels with other males. Their pregnancy lasts about 6 months and ends with the birth of one cub. Mother anxiously cares for him and does not allow anyone to approach her treasure. Even when he grows up and gets stronger, only her closest friends will be able to play with him.
Niramin - Feb 12th, 2016
In the monkey family of primates, an absolutely amazing species stands out - a bear baboon (lat. Papio ursinus), or, in other words, chakma. This mammal has gained fame as the most dangerous of the baboons. Its impressive size (height up to 115 centimeters, weight up to 30 kilograms!), A strong body covered with thick hair, large fangs, a huge, dog-like head, with a doglike elongated face and eyes deep in the skull frighten even such formidable predators as leopards.
Chakmas are animals living in large groups. They prefer to stay in wooded areas: natural caution forces baboons to stay away from open areas. Although a group of these omnivores, which usually numbers up to fifty animals, few predators dare to attack. Two or three individuals always play the role of sentries: as soon as a danger arises, the patrol makes a noise, warning the relatives with warning cries about the threat. In defense, a flock of baboons can attack both wild predators and hunting dogs.
To protect themselves as much as possible, bear baboons spend the night on the branches of tall trees or in the depths of the cliffs. Communication between individuals is a complex system of gestures, sounds, poses, grimaces.
What do chakmas eat? Briefly describe their diet - they are omnivorous. Fruits, greens, insects coexist in their menu with shellfish, fish, antelopes. To quench hunger, bear baboons can even raid a flock of sheep to feast on the young meat of newborn lambs.
In the breeding season, male Chakmas can arrange sparring fights for their girlfriend. The advantage in choosing the most attractive female is always with the leader. If affection arises between individuals, then mating is not limited to: the male takes care of his beloved one before the birth, and six months later, when the baby is born, he often takes an active part in his upbringing. For almost a year, the mother will breast-feed her baby. At the age of about five years, on the eve of their puberty, male children leave the pack, while young females, on the contrary, spend their whole lives, and this is about 30 years old, stay near their mother. Cases of longevity of the Chakmas are known: in captivity they are able to live 45 years.
The habitat of bear baboons is very wide: it is the southern part of Africa - from Angola and Mozambique to Zambia and South Africa.
See nice pictures bear baboons:
Photo: Chakma with the cub. 
Video: Baboons Fighting. Kruger, South Africa.
Video: Monkey Playing In The Mud
Video: Chacma baboons (Papio ursinus)
Video: Chacma Country Part 1
Video: Chacma Country Part 2
Hamadryl baboon, or lamellar baboon (lat. Papio hamadryas) - a large narrow-nosed monkey from the Monkey family (Cercopithecidae). This primate is distinguished by innate quick wits and relatively complex social relationships within the herd. His lifestyle is in many ways similar to the behavior of his kindred (Theropithecus gelada), (Papio ursinus) and (Papio cynocephalus).
In ancient Egypt, hamadryl was considered the sacred animal of Thoth, the god of wisdom and the moon, the patron saint of officials and scribes. In the ancient Egyptian collection of religious texts, “The Book of the Dead,” he is assigned the role of a carrier of the deceased to the other world, where he asked higher powers for a fair trial in relation to them.
Such respect for the Egyptians was caused by the luxurious mane available in males, resembling a cloak or mantle.
It becomes especially majestic and silver among the leaders. When they lose power, the hair from the mane falls out over time. Primates are very painfully experiencing the loss of their status, fall into deep depression and sometimes even die from their failure.
Spread
The habitat is located on the African continent and extends from the western coast of the Red Sea through Sudan and Eritrea to Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somalia. Today, the species is considered extinct in Egypt.
A large population lives in Yemen and Saudi Arabia on the Arabian Peninsula. Presumably fierce baboons were brought there by people.
Primates inhabit semi-deserts, savannahs and mountainous areas with steep slopes and rocky ledges. A prerequisite for their settlement is the availability of nearby sources of drinking water.
Behavior
Hamadril baboons live in herds, the number of which can sometimes reach up to 2000 individuals. Males form harems in which they have full power over 7-15 females and their offspring. Harems, headed by close relatives, are often united in clans for cohabitation. Clans, in turn, create real communities that can transform into numerous herds.
Young males gather in bachelor groups or take places at the very bottom of the harem hierarchy and patiently wait in the wings when they can squeeze up higher comrades or dull their attention with their complaisance and use the right moment for the rapid fertilization of females. Young female representatives, as a rule, leave their native communities and join other people's groups.
Particularly impatient males raid small flocks of anubis baboons (Papio anubis) and mate with their females. As a result of such sorties, prolific offspring are born.
The animals are omnivorous and well adapted to exist in relatively dry climates. In the wet season, they actively eat fruits, flowers, roots, seeds and leaves of various plants. In drought, they are content with delicate foliage of evergreen trees and shrubs, especially the species Dobera glabra from the Salvadoraceae family. In their absence, the monkeys switch to fibrous and non-nutritious stems of agave sisalana (Agave sisalana).
In addition to food of plant origin, primates eat insects, their larvae, snails, bird eggs and small vertebrates, mainly lizards.
Hamadrils spend a lot of time together searching for food and combing wool to each other. Mutual grooming helps to relieve social stress and strengthen family ties. Conflicts arising between different groups over the sharing of food, places for watering and sleeping are resolved by fierce fights of males leading them.
Between themselves, monkeys communicate using a rich set of sounds, facial expressions, postures and bodily contacts.
Breeding
Puberty occurs at the age of 5-7 years. The lavish baboons are able to breed all year round. The female cycle is approximately 4 weeks.
The owners of the harems are very jealous and attack not only other males, but also bite and beat their spouses when they seek love on the side.
Pregnancy lasts about 170 days. The female usually brings only one cub every two years. The baby weighs 600-900 g and is painted black. His mother is engaged in his upbringing, her goods, as a rule, do not render her any help. Milk feeding lasts 5-6 months.
The leader tolerates his offspring, periodically plays with them and protects from predators and strangers.
Sexually mature young males of hamadril show special unhealthy interest in babies. They steal them from their mothers, put them on their backs and gallop around the neighborhood. Such fun often ends with the death of the calf from starvation and dehydration of the body, so the owner of the harem severely punishes the caught jovial.
Description
The body length of males reaches 80-90 cm, and females 40-45 cm. Weight is 20-30 kg and 10-15 kg, respectively. The tail is 45-60 cm long. It ends with a small brush.
The fur of the males is painted silver-white. They have a mane and mantle that grow at the age of about 10 years. In females, they are absent, and their coat color takes on various shades of light brown.
The muzzle is very elongated and devoid of hairline. In males it is bright pink, and in females it is brownish and dull. The bare sciatic corns are pink in both sexes. The darkish fur of the kids brightens as they grow older.
Hamadrilian baboons wildlife rarely exceeds 15-20 years. In captivity, they live to be 37 years old.
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Baboons or dog-headed monkeys"(Latin name" Papio ") is a genus of monkeys from the primates order, the suborder Uzkonosov, the family of Dog-headed Martyshkovs. The genus of Babiana has five species: Anubis; Baboon; Hamadryad; Guinean baboon; Bear baboon.
Signs
The face of the baboons is very elongated, swollen due to the expansion of the maxillary bones, fangs are very large. The nostrils of the baboons are located at the end of the muzzle, in some other species - on the upper side. Cheek bags are highly developed. The limbs are approximately the same length. The tail is more or less short. In many species, the hair of a baboon is greatly lengthened, forming a kind of mantle on the shoulders (at the hamadryl) or head, neck and shoulders, beard.
Callous bare spots on the buttocks are highly developed. Corpus callosum thickened the skin on the buttocks occupies a very large space and is brightly colored. The bright red color of these parts, characteristic of many baboons, does not depend on the pigment, but on the blood vessels that are highly developed here. With the excitement of the animal, this color becomes especially bright, when the disease turns pale, it disappears after death.
Lifestyle
The food of baboons consists of roots, tubers, bulbs, insects and other small animals. Sometimes they eat larger ones, such as chickens. These baboons are found in Africa and Arabia, but in fossilized state their remains were found in the Pleistocene cave deposits of Madras and in the ancient Pliocene layers of the Sivalik hills of northern India.
Baboons live predominantly in the mountains on earth, although they can climb trees well. Most often they keep in large herds, courageously defending themselves from predators and find great affection for the cubs. Baboons animals are smart and very cautious. Their character differs, especially among old males, in their extreme viciousness, cunning, temper, and rampant. Males, according to natives and travelers, often attack girls.
Danger !!!
Baboons are never the first to attack a person, but if you anger, offend or injure an animal, it will certainly attack the enemy. With particular aggression, baboons protect their cubs, in case of danger, both the male and the female can throw themselves at the person. Their strong and with tenacious paws, baboons grab their enemy, bite him and try to tear soft tissues. The best way to avoid becoming a victim of a baboon is to not get close and not try to reach out to him.
Late at night, we left a cozy tent in an African village and headed for the rocky hills lost in the plain. Fresh at dawn in the African savannah. We all leaned into the open sunroof of the car to enjoy the dawn. The wind blew over our faces, burned by the merciless rays of the sun and bitten by midges. Thomson's gazelles overtook us and crossed the road in front of the car, as if inviting to play catch-up. The family of lions, heavy with satiety, with their faces still stained with blood, solemnly marched to the river. The disk of the sun has separated from the horizon. Long-legged black-and-white birds with a crest on their heads flashed over our heads with a cry, clearly alarmed and dissatisfied with the invasion of strangers in their possessions.
The hills, covered with acacias and thorny bushes, loomed against the backdrop of a fiery sky, like a huge deserted battleship, the centuries-old guardian of these places. But as we approached, I became convinced that the hills were not at all as dead as they seemed from afar. The living soul of this granite citadel is a noisy but well-organized tribe of the most intelligent, strong and independent monkeys of the African savannah - baboons.
A large family of dog-headed monkeys, consisting of about a hundred animals, spent the night on the steep ledges of rocks and on the branches of acacias, so as not to become their prey deadly enemy - leopard. They wake up with the first rays of the sun, stretch, yawn and generally behave in exactly the same way as people upon awakening. Then they bask in the sun and, with apparent pleasure, look for fleas from each other.
From the shelter between the two stones, we calmly watched with binoculars the life of the tribe. Our attention was attracted by several strong large monkeys, to whom a thick collar of coarse hair, covering his back and shoulders and magnificent growth on his cheeks, gave a particularly impressive appearance. They walked importantly among their less representative fellow tribesmen, who respectfully gave way to them. Two giants lazily fell apart in the sun, from time to time looking condescendingly at the females, who were eagerly searching for fleas from them. These are privileged male leaders.
Many other males were no less solid, but they seemed to be at the lower levels of society and represented " middle class". Every now and then they climbed to the very top of the monkey citadel and watched the horizon, apparently performing the functions of the foremen.
Females were significantly smaller than males and did not have fur collars. They were located in the center of the hill, near the male leaders. Some females were breastfeeding cubs, while others chatted like gibbers in the bazaar, and each watched with emotion for their frolicking offspring.
Suddenly, as if on signal, the male leaders rose and set off. Mothers hastily grabbed the babies, and those, clinging to the wool, climbed the females on their backs and got comfortable there. The sentinels left their towers and quickly settled in the forefront and on the flanks. Several males lingered and in two rows covered the rear guard. Then a flock of monkeys with amazing dexterity went down the granite screes and went into the open savannah. They moved without disturbing the system, sending everything edible that was found along the way into the mouth: grass, leaves, insects, snails, bulbs, roots. The prosperous tribe of baboons began its new day in the savannah, where it is threatened every minute by lions, leopards or exchange dogs, and in the open area where there are no trees, the dexterity of the monkeys included in the saying cannot help them.
How, after all, is it possible for many monkeys to safely live their life among the fierce, strong and greedy predators?
Observing the baboons for twelve hours, until sunset, when the flock returned to its fortress, we were enriched with information that makes the notes of Irvine de Voret, who devoted many years to the study of these monkeys, more understandable. We realized that it was the environment of predatory animals that raised boldness, stamina, and quick wit in baboons; gave rise to the hierarchical structure of monkey society, where males fulfill the mission of defenders, protect babies and sick animals. This attracts the attention of anthropologists to baboons, who, studying the behavior of monkeys, try to find out the lifestyle of the first anthropoids.
But let's digress from the baboons and recall in general terms the characteristic features of the group of animals, which, of course, should interest us, since we ourselves belong to it. I mean primates and higher mammals.
When it comes to monkeys, an inexperienced person imagines a tropical forest, giant treesentwined with vines and creeping plants, where these dexterous creatures perform complex acrobatic stunts to get tasty fruits from a tree branch or to escape from their enemies. And indeed, with the exception of a few genera of monkeys - baboons, macaques and others that live on the earth, most primates live on trees.
That is what determined their specific features, physical and mental. Four long movable free fingers and a fifth, large, set aside, form a tenacious brush, very convenient for climbing trees. Pads on the palms, thin tactile centers, concentrated at the fingertips, and flat nails make them unsurpassed climbers.
In primitive mammals, the eyes are located on the sides of the skull. This arrangement of visual centers allows you to view the space from two sides without turning your head, which is very convenient for observing enemies, but excludes stereoscopic vision. You can distinguish all the features of the relief, the shape of objects, and calculate the distance only if the eyes are in the same plane: this is how the visual apparatus of primates is arranged.
The tree monkeys, who had to calculate the jump so as not to fall from a great height, such vision was necessary.
The sense of smell is the most valuable and necessary feeling for animals living on earth, especially for nocturnal animals, in which vision plays a secondary role. For monkeys living on trees, where smells coming from the earth are lost and mixed with other aromas, the sense of smell loses its meaning. Obviously, therefore, the olfactory abilities of monkeys are gradually weakening. For animals conducting most life on trees, vocal cords are very important, they communicate with sounds in dense foliage with sounds. Therefore, the monkeys have the finest hearing and are “talkative."
Today, at the end of sixty million years of evolution, for all representatives of the primacy squad, starting from the mysterious ah-ah, which knocks out the fraction on the trees with long fingers, like drumsticks, and ending with the man who conquers the cosmos, sleight and mobility of hands are characteristic, a tendency to vertical position of the body, subtlety of hearing and touch, visual acuity and stereoscopicness, large, well-developed brain.
Primates include primitive half-monkeys, American monkeys, and Old World monkeys. The branch of anthropoids is separated from the latter. Each group has its own characteristics. Half-monkeys, or lemurs, currently concentrated on the island of Madagascar, are, as it were, living evidence of past stages of development. They have many features typical of the ancient varieties of these animals.
American monkeys have a long, strong, tenacious tail, a real fifth limb, free of fur at the end and equipped with sensitive epithelial cells, which allows, for example, a spider-like monkey to easily pick up peanuts and easily hang on it on a tree branch.
The monkeys of the Old World are striking red corns on the seat. These pads of roughened, insensitive skin adjoin directly to the bones and allow the animal to spend nights in a sitting position on a sharp rock or on a tree branch without feeling pain. In addition, the pads protect against circulatory disorders.
The anthropoids are distinguished by the extraordinary mobility of the shoulder, elbow and wrist. This allows them, hanging on one branch, to freely transfer the body to another. This method of movement contributed to the growth of anthropoids, which reached the size of a gorilla or orangutan, moving only on the ground. Chimpanzee and gibbon have the highest speed of movement on trees, one of which lives in Africa, the other - in Asia.
Meanwhile, the herd of our baboons reached the shore of a small river, intending to get drunk. Before approaching the water, they climbed to their hind limbs, carefully examined the surroundings and, apparently, strained their hearing. The lack of sense of smell is compensated for by the baboons with outstanding ingenuity. Often in such situations, baboons patiently wait until zebras, known for their delicate sense of smell, come to the watering hole. If there are lions nearby, then zebras, having described several circles near a reservoir, are removed without having quenched their thirst.
Mutation, natural selection, biological environment, the nature of nutrition made the baboons completely unlike their blood brothers - thinbodies, or colobuses, never leaving the tops of trees. Monkeys living in the woods flee their enemies by climbing to the very top of the trees and deftly jumping from tree to tree. From such a lifestyle, their limbs lengthened, their bodies became lean and light. The same monkeys who spend a significant part of life on earth have to defend themselves against enemies. Hence the powerful muscles of the baboons. They have a wide, stocky body, very strong shoulders. The special structure of the jaws gives the head of the baboon the resemblance to a dog. Thanks to the large, formidable fangs of males, the organization and aggressiveness of the pack, this species of monkey tribe feels quite confident on earth. The baboon's teeth are longer than that of a leopard or hyena dog.
When a herd of baboons is on the way, females with cubs take their place in the middle of the pack. They are guarded by male leaders. At the forefront and rearguard there are sentinel males, younger and more agile than leaders, but less strong and hardy.
Young males cope with a non-dangerous opponent, such as a jackal or hyena. It is enough for them to ruffle the hair and show the fangs so that the predator gets out of the way. But once the leopard appears, the young males walking in front begin to emit furious cries, something like a short, piercing bark that acts on male leaders like a call-out. Without hesitation and hesitation, the baboons-leaders rush at the enemy. If the predator took possession of the prey - a cub or a female, but did not manage to hide among it among the branches of trees, large males rush at it and instantly tear it to pieces, although it often costs two or three monkeys life. Females with offspring during the battle, guarded by several males, retreat to a safe place.
Only with two enemies baboons do not dare to engage in battle - with a lion and a man. With the first - because he does not hunt alone, and with the second - because of him firearms. But when the lions or the person pursues the pack, the leader baboons always cover the retreat of the females and take care of their salvation only when the females with the cubs are safe.
Forest monkeys, including gorillas and orangutans, have a peaceful and even timid character. But the baboons and macaques ground image life, full of dangers, developed courage and militancy. But these qualities would lose their value if they were not combined with iron discipline and a clear hierarchical structure of monkey society. Otherwise, fights over females and territory would lead baboons to self-destruction.
The organization of the life of the pack indicates a high degree of development of baboons. They obey not only one leader, but the aristocratic elite, into which any male possessing the corresponding physical and mental data can fall.
Among females, the hierarchy is not so strict. Motherhood ensures their transition to a privileged class. When a young female, standing at any step of the public ladder, approaches puberty, she, with the full benevolence of old aristocratic males, can play love games with young males of a lower rank. But in the period most favorable for conception, the male leader connects with her and protects her until the baby is born. Thus, more highly organized and strong males fertilize the healthiest females and thereby contribute to natural selection.
From the moment of the birth of the cub to its independence (this period usually lasts two years), the mother occupies a privileged position in the pack under the protection of male leaders and is surrounded by the care of other females. Cubs in the pack are treated with extraordinary tenderness and care. Young females, at every opportunity, play with babies, male leaders, forgetting about their importance, tumbling with them in the sand, and show no less caution and affection than their mother. Newborn monkeys are completely helpless creatures, and the whole flock sparingly takes part in their upbringing. It's no secret that we, the people, are doing exactly the same.
It is much more difficult to get into the privileged elite of the male. To do this, he needs years of struggle. Battles for power between males are not cruel, bloody in nature. Usually such fights are limited to a tournament of threats. Opponents exchange angry looks, threateningly expose their fangs, ruffle their hair, and hit the limbs on the ground. Threats are accompanied by shrill screams, sniffles and growls. If all these actions do not reach the goal and the battle turns out to be inevitable, then the vanquished always has the surest means to calm the winner and save his life. It is enough for him to turn his back on the enemy, as females do during estrus. Then the winner simulates copulation, and then proudly returns to the center of the group of fans. In the following days, the male, having won, repeatedly approaches the former contender for power and looks at him threateningly. The defeated dutifully offers his formidable opponent his ass, and he calms down.
The male leaders treat each other with reverence and jointly carry out reprisals against young rebels. The leaders are the functions of maintaining order in the pack. If a teenager is rude to a female or a cub, the retribution of the male who is keeping order is not long in coming: he immediately rushes to the offender and bites him in the neck.
Elite members are highly respected in the pack. A young male rarely dares to step on the sacred territory occupied by the leading males, and helpfully gives way to the leader when he is sent in his direction. Approaching an old male at a distance of three meters is already considered an unforgivable liberty. From the vicious circle of their proud loneliness, male aristocrats arrogantly look at their subordinates, and woe to those who dare not to look down before them. The male leader enjoys unlimited privileges, takes the most convenient place in the pack, eats what he wants and where he wants, chooses any female and requires complete submission from his fellow tribesmen. But when a strong enemy, a lion or a leopard, threatens, the leader engages in a mortal battle with him, while the rest of the pack watches the battle, sitting in the trees.
A group of baboons, which we followed at some distance, devoted the morning to finding food. Neither the lizard, nor the grasshopper, nor the smallest rodent, nor bird eggs escaped their keen eyes. On occasion, they kill hares and cubs of gazelles and feast on their meat.
At noon, the flock settled near the rocks in the shadow of acacias. This is an hour of afternoon rest. The leaders and the female mothers slept, having taken possession of the most comfortable places, the young generation frolic, and the sentinel males guarded. Finally, the dream ruined everyone.
We ourselves hardly resisted him, sitting on the roof of the all-terrain vehicle and languishing from the heat. In the sky, "scavengers" motionlessly hung, flies intrusively buzzing. During these hours, life in the savannah freezes, animals seek refuge from the scorching rays of the sun under the canopy of bushes and rocks, in deep caves. Only fat, similar to groundhog damans move among the rocks, not for a minute stopping stuffing their stomachs with leaves and nutritious roots. We thought of a kinship that connects these little strange animals with giant elephants. I tried to make out with binoculars their flat claw-like claws, which gave zoological scientists a reason to draw a parallel between damans and elephants.
Damans move among the rocks with amazing dexterity, unexpected for their weighty build. Special pads on their feet, like sponge rubber, stick to the rocks. Over the course of weeks, they can do without water: their kidneys have the ability to produce viscous, thick urine and therefore excrete very little fluid from the body. Perhaps this ability allows them to neglect midday rest and calmly walk along the hot granite in the heat.
I was distracted from thinking by the stampede of the damans into their burrows. Huddled in the crevices of the rocks, they whistled piercingly. The baboons screamed. A strange, ever-increasing buzzing made us turn our heads. We saw a buffoon eagle emerging from the peak, which rose, touching the granite rocks with wide wings. He never had time to grab the prey: the daman darted into the crevice. Buffalo eagles have a characteristic silhouette. A short tail allows you to see when flying, legs elongated back with bent claws. When choosing a victim, a buffoon hovers at such a height that it is not visible from the ground. He attacks from the side of the sun and rushes to the prey with wings pressed to the body. The attack of a buffoon eagle is always unexpected, since it is completely impossible to notice it in the blinding rays of the sun, especially since the lower part of the body of the bird is covered with white feathers, with the exception of the dark strip bordering the wings. With this color, its silhouette is completely dissolved in the stream of light.
However, the damans, who suffer more than other animals from the aggressiveness of the buffalo eagle, are armed with some means of protection from their enemy. According to zoologist Leslie Brown, daman is the only animal that can calmly look at the sun. It was this property that served as the source of the legend about the blindness of the damans.
Meanwhile, evening twilight came, and the baboons began to prepare for the return trip. At this time, the pack eats a second time. Following the monkey tribe, we walked about ten kilometers, without going beyond the boundaries of a small area of \u200b\u200btwenty-five square kilometers, which the baboons chose to live in.
The attachment of these creatures to their native places is noteworthy. Day after day they set off at dawn on the road, without changing the usual route and stopping at the same places to quench their thirst and hunger. With neighboring flocks, they are found only on the borders of their territory and in no man's land, where different flocks gather for watering and resting. Oddly enough, the monkeys, creatures are warlike and restless, pretending not to notice representatives of other flocks. Leaders behave as if alien rivals do not exist. Attempts by researchers to force the baboons to go beyond their territory were unsuccessful. When approaching the fateful line, the animal showed concern, and then turned back, and no bait could make him break the border.
Due to such strict observance of sovereignty between monkeys, despite their aggressive nature, there are no clashes. Unfortunately, man did not inherit from the monkey the enviable ability to maintain peace.
The rocky stronghold of baboons was golden in the last rays of the sun. Male sentinels arrived first and began to examine the thickets of shrubs and crevices where a leopard could hide. The rest of the flock gathered at the inner landing. The kids frolic and squealed merrily, and the male leaders looked up warily, as if waiting for a signal. When the sentinel males returned from reconnaissance, the flock set in motion and began to climb the upper tiers of the citadel. With the onset of night, each member of the pack chose a branch on a tree or a cliff ledge, inaccessible to a leopard, where you can easily spend the night.
The night inspires all primates with inexplicable fear. How many of us have dreamed that he is falling into a terrible, dark abyss? Not one ancestor of a man lost his life, falling in a dream from a tree or a ledge of a rock. Perhaps this is where our instinctive fear of the void that unfolds before us in a dream comes from.
Twilight gave way to darkness, silence descended onto the rock. At this hour, the night leopard makes a silent round like a shadow. He carefully and carefully examines every rock, every tree, every bush, and woe to the baboon who neglected the precautionary measures and did not take care of a safe haven for the night. According to statistics, the main prey of the leopard during night hunting is baboons. In areas of Africa where hunting for leopards is unlimited, baboons have multiplied so much that they have become a real disaster for plantations. African leopard - the best regulator of the number of baboons.
After the baboons, green monkeys became the object of our observations, among which we spent the whole day in Tsavo. We not only photographed them close and stroked on green wool, but also shared sandwiches with them, relaxed after dinner under the shade of acacia trees, drove in the same car and admired the fun games of the kids with emotion. Among African animals there is no creature more sweet, masterful and cheerful than a cub monkey frolicking in freedom.
In Asia and Africa, three multi-species groups of monkeys - colobus, or thin-bodied, long-tailed monkeys and dog-headed monkeys - which combine sixteen genera, including more than two hundred species ( In the family of monkey monkeys, to which all the animals listed by the author belong, there are 15 genera, which include 58 species of colobus, real monkeys, macaques, baboons and other monkeys) Easiest to watch african long-tailed monkeys, thanks to their gullible, cheerful disposition. Some groups of green monkeys belonging to the genus of common monkeys have completely mastered with the presence of photographers and naturalists among them. One such group lives in the Tsavo River Valley - one of the most beautiful places in the reserve. For four days they were our inseparable companions, and we made interesting observations of the females and cubs that were born shortly before our arrival.
In all primates, including humans, twins, triplets and so on are born very rarely. In monkeys, as a rule, one cub is born. This is a consequence of life on trees. As soon as he saw the light, the baby, clinging closely to his mother, begins to travel with her from branch to branch. The mother vigilantly watches the cub, is vigilantly making sure that he does not break loose. The presence of two or three cubs would inevitably weaken her attention.
The newborn monkey has very strong and tenacious limbs, with which it clings to the fur on the sides and stomach of the mother. The baby is hanging on the mother’s chest, which freely jumps with trees with this light load. A baby can suck milk from the mother’s breast at any time, clasping its legs on its sides. Females relate to their offspring with extraordinary tenderness. No treats could make them let the kids out of their hands. Green monkeys, like baboons, take amazing care of their children.
The newborn baboon has a pink muzzle, not overgrown with hair, and the body is covered with black hair. At four months, the face of the little baboon begins to darken, and the hair on the body becomes brown. During this period, mothers are not so attentive to babies, but males, young and old, double their attention and take part in their games with pleasure. At ten months, the baboon acquires the usual coloring for adult monkeys and spends time not next to her mother, but in the company of her peers, imitating adult monkeys in games in everything.
The baboon goes through three phases of development. The first is complete dependence on the mother, the second is children's games, the third is education. To prove how important the role of the first two phases is, a professor from Wisconsin, Harry Harlow, performed several experiments that are now widely known among primatologists.
Harlow placed several Rhesus macaque cubs in “artificial mothers,” nipple dolls. At half of the mannequins, the trunk was lined with fabric similar to macaque fur. For the rest, the metal structure was not covered by anything. All babies chose dolls with fur, although not all “dressed mothers” had nipples connected to milk tanks. For the young, contact with the mother was more important than milk. Professor Harlow, on a number of experiments, proved that in the distance from "artificial mothers" little macaques are afraid of a teddy bear beating a drum. However, if the mother doll is nearby and the baby can touch it in a moment of danger, he quickly calms down and begins to amuse himself with a toy that has just inspired fear in him.
Harlow kept another batch of macaques in individual cages isolated from each other. After some time, they were allowed into the cells of other monkeys. Little hermits did not participate in common games, they were afraid of their own kind, and when they reached puberty, they were unable to copulate. In the third group, part of the macaque cubs, deprived of the opportunity to play with their same-year-olds, lived in cages with “artificial mothers,” part could observe what was happening in the common cage, some were completely isolated. All as a result turned out to be defects, especially in the last group, where there was a higher percentage of nervous and mental deviations. But the monkeys, which were united with their comrades for twenty minutes a day, perfectly adapted among normal macaques.
The experiments of Professor Harlow proved that playing monkeys at large is not just a tribute to the frisky age, but exercises that prepare the animal physically and mentally for life among their own kind. The psychologists who observed the person in similar situations came to similar conclusions. Children's games, the emergence of family ties, family and friendships can be attributed to the initial stage of the evolution of human thought.