Olive Baboon

Fascinating facts about the Olive Baboon

• Male olive baboons tower at about 70 cm (28 in) when standing, while females are a full 10 cm shorter. Their bodies weigh between 10 kg and 37 kg, but the average male tips the scales at 24 kg (53 lb) and the average female at 14.7 kg (32 lb). Exceptional males can reach 50 kg (110 lb), making them as heavy as a small adult human. This extreme sexual dimorphism fuels fierce male competition for mates and resources, shaping the troop's hierarchy and driving the species' bold, dog-like appearance.
• Olive baboons occupy the widest stretch of any baboon, roaming across 25 African nations from Mali in the west to Ethiopia and Tanzania in the east. Their range even brushes isolated mountain pockets of the Sahara, overlapping with other baboon species and producing hybrid zones in Ethiopia. Such a massive distribution means the species can survive in savannahs, steppes, rainforests and even deserts, giving it a resilience that underpins its "least-concern" IUCN status.
• Troops of olive baboons range from 15 to 150 individuals, a mix of a few males, many females and their young. Within these groups, a female's rank, usually inherited from her mother, directly influences reproductive success: high-ranking mothers in Tanzania give birth at shorter intervals, produce infants with higher survival odds, and see their daughters mature faster.
• Olive baboons are true opportunists, eating everything from leaves and fruits to insects and small mammals. They even hunt larger prey: small antelope such as Thomson's gazelle, plus sheep, goats and chickens, which can supply roughly one-third of their diet. This hunting behaviour, now a group activity involving both sexes, expands their food base.
• Female olive baboons carry a single calf after a 180-day gestation, and the newborn weighs about 1.07 kg (1068 g). After birth, mothers typically wait 12 to 34 months before conceiving again, a span that shortens for older, higher-ranking females.

Sources

Every fact above was checked against these pages, and kept only where one of them states it.

• Wikipedia
• Animal Diversity Web

At a glance

About the Olive Baboon

In the scorching savannas, the olive baboon reigns as a master of adaptability, its sleek, grey-brown coat glistening in the sunlight as it navigates the grasslands with an air of confident nonchalance. With a fluid, athletic gait, it moves through the landscape, its piercing eyes scanning the terrain for the ripest fruits, the tenderest shoots, and the most opportune moments to exploit the bounty of its domain. As it forages, its intelligent, inquisitive nature shines through, a testament to the remarkable resilience and cunning of this most resourceful of primates.

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