Baboon[1]
Olive baboon
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Primates
Family:	Cercopithecidae
Genus:	Papio Erxleben, 1777
Type species
Simia hamadryas Linnaeus, 1758
Species
Papio hamadryas Papio papio Papio anubis Papio cynocephalus Papio ursinus
Synonyms
Chaeropitheus Gervais, 1839 Comopithecus J. A. Allen, 1925 Cynocephalus G. Cuvier and É. Geoffroy, 1795 Hamadryas Lesson, 1840 (non Hübner, 1804: preoccupied)

Baboons are African and Arabian Old World monkeys belonging to the genus Papio, part of the subfamily Cercopithecinae. There are five species, which are some of the largest non-hominoid members of the primate order; only the mandrill and the drill are larger. Previously, the closely related gelada (genus Theropithecus) and the two species (mandrill and drill) of genus Mandrillus were grouped in the same genus, and these Old World monkeys are still often referred to as baboons in everyday speech. They range in size and weight depending on species. The Guinea baboon is 50 cm (20 inches) and weighs only 14 kg (30 lb) while the largest chacma baboon can be 120 cm (47 inches) and weigh 40 kg (90 lb).

Taxonomy and phylogeny[link]

Five species of Papio are commonly recognized, although there is some disagreement about whether they are really full species or subspecies. They are P. ursinus (chacma baboon, found in southern Africa), P. papio (western, red, or Guinea baboon, found in the far western Africa), P. hamadryas (hamadryas baboon, found in the Horn of Africa and south-western Arabia), P. anubis (olive baboon, found in the north-central African savanna) and P. cynocephalus (yellow baboon, found in south-central and eastern Africa). Many authors distinguish P. hamadryas as a full species, but regard all the others as subspecies of P. cynocephalus and refer to them collectively as "savanna baboons". This may not be helpful: it is based on the argument that the hamadryas baboon is behaviorally and physically distinct from other baboon species, and that this reflects a separate evolutionary history. However, recent morphological and genetic studies of papio show the hamadryas baboon to be more closely related to the northern baboon species (the Guinea and olive baboons) than to the southern species (the yellow and chacma baboons).^[2][3][4]

The traditional 5-form classification probably under-represents the variation within Papio. Some commentators^[5] argue that at least two more forms should be recognized, including the tiny Kinda baboon (P. cynocephalus kindae) from Zambia, DR Congo, and Angola, and the gray-footed baboon (P. ursinus griseipes) found in Zambia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and northern South Africa. However, current knowledge of the morphological, genetic, and behavioral diversity within Papio is too poor to make any final, comprehensive judgment on this matter.

There are 5 species of baboons in the genus Papio:^[1]

• Genus Papio
  • Hamadryas baboon, Papio hamadryas
  • Guinea baboon, Papio papio
  • Olive baboon, Papio anubis
  • Yellow baboon, Papio cynocephalus
    • Central yellow baboon, Papio cynocephalus cynocephalus
    • Ibean baboon, Papio cynocephalus ibeanus
    • Kinda baboon, Papio cynocephalus kindae
  • Chacma baboon, Papio ursinus
    • Cape chacma, Papio ursinus ursinus
    • Gray-footed chacma, Papio ursinus griseipes
    • Ruacana chacma, Papio ursinus raucana

Anatomy and physiology[link]

Face of Hamadryas baboon (Papio hamadryas)

All baboons have long dog-like muzzles; heavy, powerful jaws with sharp canine teeth; close-set eyes; thick fur except on their muzzle; a short tail; and rough spots on their protruding buttocks, called ischial callosities. These calluses are nerveless, hairless pads of skin that provide for the sitting comfort of the baboon.

In all baboon species there is pronounced sexual dimorphism, usually in size but also sometimes in colour or canine development. Males of the Hamadryas Baboon species also have a large white mane.

Behavior and ecology[link]

Baboon with mother, Lake Manayara National Park, Tanzania

Baboons are terrestrial (ground dwelling) and are found in open savannah, open woodland and hills across Africa. Their diet is omnivorous, but mostly herbivorous; yet they eat insects and occasionally prey on fish, shellfish, hares, birds, vervet monkeys, and small antelopes.^[6] They are foragers and are active at irregular times throughout the day and night. They can raid human dwellings and in South Africa they have been known to prey on sheep and goats.

Their principal predators are humans, the lion, both the spotted and striped hyena and the leopard. They are however considered a difficult prey for the leopard, which is mostly a threat to young baboons. Large males will often confront them by flashing their eyelids, showing their teeth by yawning, making gestures, and chasing after the intruder/predator.

Baboons in captivity have been known to live up to 45 years, while in the wild their life expectancy is about 30 years.

Baboons are able to acquire orthographic processing skills, which form part of the ability to read.^[7]

Social systems[link]

A troop of baboons.

Most baboons live in hierarchical troops. Group sizes vary between 5 to 250 animals (often about 50 or so), depending on specific circumstances, especially species and time of year. The structure within the troop varies considerably between hamadryas baboons and the remaining species, sometimes collectively referred to as savanna baboons. The hamadryas baboon often appear in very large groups composed of many smaller harems (one male with four or so females), to which females from elsewhere in the troop are recruited while they're still too young to breed. Other baboon species have a more promiscuous structure with a strict dominance hierarchy based on the matriline. The hamadryas baboon group will typically include a younger male, but he will not attempt to mate with the females unless the older male is removed.

Baboons can determine from vocal exchanges what the dominance relations are between individuals. When a confrontation occurs between different families or where a lower-ranking baboon takes the offensive, baboons show more interest in the exchange than exchanges between members of the same family or when a higher-ranking baboon takes the offensive. This is because confrontations between different families or rank challenges can have a wider impact on the whole troop than an internal conflict in a family or a baboon reinforcing its dominance.^[8]

The collective noun for baboons is commonly troop^[9], although flange and congress are also increasingly used. http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definitions/baboon?cx=partner-pub-0939450753529744%3Av0qd01-tdlq&cof=FORID%3A9&ie=UTF-8&q=baboon&sa=Search#906 This unusual term originates from a Not the Nine O'Clock News comedy sketch entitled "Gerald The Intelligent Gorilla" where it was used for comic effect.^[10]

In the harems of the hamadryas baboons, the males jealously guard their females, to the point of grabbing and biting the females when they wander too far away. Despite this, some males will raid harems for females. In such situations it often comes to aggressive fights by the males. Visual threats are usually accompanied by these aggressive fights. This would include a quick flashing of the eyelids accompanied by a yawn to show off the teeth. Some males succeed in taking a female from another's harem. This is called a "takeover". In many species, infant baboons are taken by the males as hostages during fights.

Mating and birth[link]

Baboon with its young. Lake Manayara National Park, Tanzania

Female sex skin swelling

Baboon mating behavior varies greatly depending on the social structure of the troop. In the mixed groups of savanna baboons, each male can mate with any female. The mating order among the males depends partially on their social ranking, and fights between males are not unusual. There are however more subtle possibilities; in mixed groups males sometimes try to win the friendship of females. To garner this friendship, they may help groom the female, help care for her young, or supply them with food. The probability is high that those young are their offspring. Some females clearly prefer such friendly males as mates. However, males will also take infants during fights in order to protect themselves from harm.

A female initiates mating by presenting her swollen rump to the male. But "presenting" can also be used as a submissive gesture and is observed in males as well. This submissive gesture has many unspoken meanings amongst the troop. The dominant males often engage in what is known as a false-mount, in which they mount the submissive males. It is a sign of dominance, and happens very commonly to younger males in the troop.

Females typically give birth every other year, usually to a single infant, after a six month gestation. The young baboon weighs approximately one kilogram and has a black epidermis when born. The females tend to be the primary caretaker of the young, although several females will share the duties for all of their offspring.

After about one year, the young animals are weaned. They reach sexual maturity in five to eight years. Baboon males leave their birth group, usually before they reach sexual maturity, whereas females are philopatric and stay in the same group their whole life.

Relationship with humans[link]

In Egyptian mythology, Babi was the deification of the hamadryas baboon and was therefore a sacred animal. It was known as the attendant of Thoth and so is also called the Sacred Baboon.

See also[link]

• List of historical monkeys
• Parapapio
• Amboseli Baboon Research Project

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Cheney, Dorothy L. / Seyfarth, Robert M. (2007): Baboon Metaphysics: The Evolution of a Social Mind. Chicago.

External links[link]

Wikispecies has information related to: Papio

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Baboon

• papio.com Informative website regarding Papio
• Baboons: Wildlife summary from the African Wildlife Foundation
• Primate Info Net Papio Factsheets
• Stress and Coping What baboons can teach us Lecture by Robert Sapolsky at Stanford University (via iTunes)
• BaboonsOnline.com
• Baboons wading through water bipedally
• Baboons of Saudi Arabia: Splendid Arabia, An Online Guide to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
• Webcam of the Baboon enclosure at Knowsley Safari Park

Robert Maurice Sapolsky
Robert Sapolsky in 2009.
Born	1957
Residence	United States
Nationality	American
Fields	Neurology, Neurobiology, Biological anthropology, Primatology
Institutions	Stanford University
Alma mater	Harvard University (B.A.) Rockefeller University (Ph.D.)

Robert Maurice Sapolsky (born 1957) is an American scientist and author. He is currently Professor of Biological Sciences, and Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences and, by courtesy, Neurosurgery, at Stanford University. In addition, he is a Research Associate at the National Museums of Kenya.^[1]

Early life and Education[link]

Sapolsky was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. to immigrants from the Soviet Union. He was raised as an Orthodox Jew and spent his time reading about and imagining living with Silverback Gorillas. By age 12, he was writing fan letters to primatologists; he attended John Dewey High School and by that time, he was reading textbooks on the subject and teaching himself Swahili.^[2]

In 1978, Sapolsky received his B.A. in biological anthropology summa cum laude from Harvard University.^[3] He then went to Kenya to study the social behaviors of baboons in the wild; after which he returned to New York; studying at Rockefeller University, where he received his Ph.D. in Neuroendocrinology working in the lab of Bruce McEwen, a world-renowned endocrinologist.

Following Sapolsky's initial year-and-a-half field study in Africa he returned every summer for another twenty-five years to observe the same group of baboons,from the late 70s to the early 90s. He spent 8–10 hours a day for approximately four months each year recording the behaviors of these primates.^[4]

Career[link]

Sapolsky is currently the John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn Professor at Stanford University, holding joint appointments in several departments, including Biological Sciences, Neurology & Neurological Sciences, and Neurosurgery.^[5]

A neuroendocrinologist, he has focused his research on issues of stress and neuronal degeneration, as well as on the possibilities of gene therapy strategies for protecting susceptible neurons from disease. Currently, he is working on gene transfer techniques to strengthen neurons against the disabling effects of glucocorticoids. Sapolsky also spends time annually in Kenya studying a population of wild baboons in order to identify the sources of stress in their environment, and the relationship between personality and patterns of stress-related disease in these animals. More specifically, Sapolsky studies the cortisol levels between the alpha male and female and the subordinates to determine stress level. An early but still relevant example of his studies of olive baboons is to be found in his 1990 Scientific American article, "Stress in the Wild".^[6]

Honors[link]

Sapolsky has received numerous honors and awards for his work, including the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship genius grant in 1987,^[7] an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, and the Klingenstein Fellowship in Neuroscience. He was also awarded the National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award and the Young Investigator of the Year Awards from the Society for Neuroscience, the International Society for Psychoneuro-Endocrinology, and the Biological Psychiatry Society.

In 2007 he received the John P. McGovern Award for Behavioral Science, awarded by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.^[8]

In 2008 he received Wonderfest's Carl Sagan Prize for Science Popularization.^[9] In February 2010 Sapolsky was named to the Freedom From Religion Foundation's Honorary Board of distinguished achievers.^[10]

See also[link]

• Hans Selye
• Walter Bradford Cannon
• Paul Radin

Selected works[link]

Books[link]

• Stress, the Aging Brain, and the Mechanisms of Neuron Death (MIT Press, 1992) ISBN 0-262-19320-5
• Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers (1994, Holt Paperbacks/Owl 3rd Rep. Ed. 2004) ISBN 0-8050-7369-8
• The Trouble with Testosterone: And Other Essays on the Biology of the Human Predicament (Scribner, 1997) ISBN 0-684-83891-5
• Junk Food Monkeys (Headline Publishing, 1997) ISBN 978-0-7472-7676-0
• A Primate's Memoir (Touchstone Books, 2002) ISBN 0-7432-0247-3
• Monkeyluv : And Other Essays on Our Lives as Animals (Scribner, 2005) ISBN 0-7432-6015-5

Journal articles[link]

• Sapolsky, Robert (January 1990). "Stress in The Wild". Scientific American 262 (1): 106–113. PMID 2294581. 
• Sapolsky, Robert; Lewis C. Krey, and Bruce S. McEwen (25 September 2000). "The Neuroendocrinology of Stress and Aging: The Glucocorticoid Cascade Hypothesis". Science of Aging Knowledge Environment 38: 21. 
• Sapolsky, Robert; L. Michael Romero and Allan U. Munck (2000). "How Do Glucocorticoids Influence Stress Responses? Integrating Permissive, Suppressive, Stimulatory, and Preparative Actions". Endocrine Reviews 21 (1): 55–89. DOI:10.1210/er.21.1.55. PMID 10696570. 
• Sapolsky, Robert; Rodrigues SM. (2009). "Disruption of Fear Memory through Dual-Hormone Gene Therapy". Biol Psychiatry 65 (5): 441–4. DOI:10.1016/j.biopsych.2008.09.003. PMC 2660393. PMID 18973875. //www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=2660393. 
• Sapolsky, Robert; Mitra R. (2009). "Effects of enrichment predominate over those of chronic stress on fear-related behavior in male rats". Stress 12 (4): 305–12. DOI:10.1080/10253890802379955. PMID 19051124. 
• Sapolsky, Robert; Cheng MY., Sun G., Jin M., Zhao H. and Steinberg GK. (2009). "Blocking glucocorticoid and enhancing estrogenic genomic signaling protects against cerebral ischemia". J Cereb Blood Flow Metab 29 (1): 130–6. DOI:10.1038/jcbfm.2008.105. PMID 18797472. 

Courses[link]

• Being Human: Life Lessons from the Frontiers of Science, a course by the Teaching Company in 2012. ^[11]
• Biology and Human Behavior: The Neurological Origins of Individuality, a course by the Teaching Company in 2005.^[12]
• Stress and Your Body, a course by the Teaching Company in 2010.^[13]
• Human Behavioral Biology, Stanford University undergraduate biology course. See iTunesU. 2009.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Robert Sapolsky

• Robert Sapolsky profile at Stanford School of Medicine
• Robert Sapolsky biographical entry at the Barclay Agency
• Going Wild
• Robert Sapolsky at edge.org
• Robert Sapolsky at meta-library.net
• Robert Sapolsky at KurzweilAI.net
• Robert Sapolsky Lecture at Syracuse University
• excerpt of the "Emperor Has No Clothes Award" acceptance speech
• New York Times article "No Time for Bullies: Baboons Retool Their Culture," readable account of Sapolsky's research on baboon culture
• Stress: Portrait of a Killer, National Geographic special featuring Sapolsky's research
• Does Age Quash Our Spirit of Adventure? An NPR interview with Robert Sapolsky
• Robert Sapolsky: The uniqueness of humans via TED.com
• Robert Sapolsky New York Times essay "This Is Your Brain on Metaphors" in the "The Stone" blog