Lab Report....

Abstract:
Chacma baboons are the largest species of monkeys/largest members of the monkey family. males can weigh from 59-97 pounds and are 20-30 inches long. Females can weigh 31-37 pounds and are 16-24 inches long. They live in Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe(which are all located in the Southern part of Africa.) They have close set eyes, under a heavy brow, and a dog like muzzle with sharp tusks like upper canine teeth. Also having olive-gray fur, with tails that reach up to 2 feet long.
Backround:
Chacma baboons are the largest species of monkeys. Males can weigh from fifty-nine to ninety-seven pounds and are twenty to thirty inches long. Females can weigh thirty-one to thirty-seven pounds and are sixteen to twenty-four inches long. The Chacma live in the southern countries of Africa. They have close set eyes, under a heavy brow, and a dog like muzzle with sharp tusks like upper canine teeth. Also having olive-gray fur, with tails that reach up to 2 feet long.
The Chacma can breed every 1.5 to 2 years. Mating can occur at anytime of the year. For each couple, they can produce a number of 1offspring(that’s the usual number of offsprings that they can have). While raising an offspring, the chacma only take care of them for 12 months. After, the young chacma baboons are free to carry on with life and proceed with surviving on their own. Female chacma baboons can reproduce after 3 years. Male chacma baboons can reproduce after 5 years. The Chacma can usually live up to 45 years old when their in captivity. It’s unlikely for them to live this long if they are out in the wild. Home ranges between 910 and 3,370 ha have been reported. The daily range of a troop varies between 1,609 and 14,484 m.
Teeth chattering and lip smacking are signs of reassurance. Usually performed by a dominant male when another is coming towards him. A female may also lipsmack when approaching a mother and her infant. As in all highly social species, communication is varied and complex. The Chacma utilizes visual signals and gestures, vocalizations, and tactile communication. Juveniles and infants produce some vocalizations unique to how old they are. These include chattering, which is a nasal, grunt-like call emited during play. They also give an ick-ooer sound which communicates a low level of distress. Adult females produce a vocalization during copulation called a muffled growl. The mouth is closed, and the cheeks expand and contract during this call. Tactile communication is common in cercopithecines. Social grooming is used to reinforce social bonds, as well as to remove parasites and debris from the fur. Social mounting is a reassurance behavior. Anubis baboons also perform a friendly nose-to-nose greeting.
The Chacma are quadrupedal, terrestrial primates. They are highly social animals, having a complex multi-male and multi-female social structure. Some cases, one-male units (OMUs) may form within the broader multimale multi-female society, resulting in substantial differences in behavior. All males emigrate from their natal troops. Besides settling in a new troop, males must establish themselves in the male dominance hierarchy of that troop. This typically involves aggressive behavior between males, with the "winner" of an encounter establishing dominance over the "loser." Males do not maintain long-term bonds with their male kin; as is seen in hamadryas baboons. Females behave differently toward one another then they do towards unrelated animals. Chacmas are most likely to aid their kind than they are to become involved in disputes of unrelated individuals. These relationships can extend over multiple generations, with females aiding not only their own offspring, and aunts aiding nieces, but grandmothers aiding their granddaughters. Additional differences in feeding have been noted. Multi-male troops of chacma baboons often forage on fresh grass, Cypress crowns, and the tubers of aquatic plants, especially those of Nymphaea caerulea, or a water lily. OMUs avoided these pants, and focused their foraging on the fruits of the Kigelia pinnata tree, the green seeds of Acacia nigrens, and figs (Ficus sycomorus and Ficus burki). These food sources were ignored by multi-male groups. Unlike hamadryas baboon females, chacma females seem to be less responsive to the OMU male. Female chacma baboons do not respond to male stares. This may be because the male chacma in an OMU does not herd the females as aggressively as does a hamadryas male, and does not bite their necks as a hamadryas male would. However, if females stray too far from the rest of the group, the chacma baboon OMU male will herd the female back into the fold.
The Chacma are known to eat fruits, including Kigelia pinnata fruit and figs from both Ficus sycomorus and Ficus burki. Chacmav also eat leaves, including the crowns of Cypress trees, tree gums, insects, eggs, seeds, including the green seeds of Acacia nigrens, flowers, water lilies (Nymphaea caerulea), grass, rhizomes, corms, roots, tubers, and small vertebrates. One feeding adaptation thought to be shared by all baboons is the ability to subsist on a relatively low quality diet. Baboons can subsist on grasses for extended periods of time. This allows them to exploit dry terrestrial habitats, like deserts, semideserts, steppes, and grasslands.Primary Diet: Omivore.Animal Foods: birds; mammals; reptiles; eggs; carrion; insects; terrestrial non-insect arthropods.Plant Foods: leaves; roots and tubers; wood, bark, or stems; seeds, grains, and nuts; fruit.
LAB:
Question: While in captivity, what are the behaviors of Chacma Baboons?
Hypothesis: We believe that Chacma Baboons are not as active in captivity as they are in the wild. While watching the Baboons, they really do that much. The main active thing they did was running. Not having the usually open space that they would have, the boundaries that surround them may make them, as we say, gloom.
Experiment:
*Materials:
Ethogram
Pen/Pencil
Notebook
Cameras
4. Procedure:
1.Create an Ethogram with at least 10 different behaviors.(each section should be labeled 5-10minutes, 10-15minutes, and so on until you reach 2 hours).
2.Go to the Bronx Zoo and find the exhibit with the Chacma Baboons.(located in the baboon reserve).
3.Observe the creature for a total of 2 hours.
4.After observing and checking off all of the different behaviors that have happened, organize your data and use tally marks to conclude the total number of tallies for each of the 10 or more behaviors you wrote down.
5. Data:
(on separate sheet)
6. Analysis of Data:
Our data showed that the most repeated behavior was running. The second was walking and the third was eating. In the wild, they wouldn’t eat as much as they do in captivity. This shows a difference in behavior.
7. Conclusion:
We believe that our hypothesis was supported by the data. In captivity, Chacma Baboons act different then they do in the wild. In capacity, they seem a little depress. This depression can be caused by having boundaries. To give an example, when human teenagers don’t have the kind of freedom that they want or deserve, they get upset or are usually disappointed. The Chacma Baboons may also feel the same way.

More images of chacma baboons

taken by avery, candy and deiona

Bibliography of another website

Shefferly, Nancy. "Papio ursinus." ADW: Papio Ursinus: Information. 1995-2006. Interagency Education Research Initiative. 4 May 2007 http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Papio_ursinus.html.

Bibliography of some of the websites

S., Chase. "Chacma Baboon." Chacma Baboon-papio ursinus. 2000. 3 May 2007 http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/chacma_baboon.htm.

"Animal Behavior-CHACMA BABOON." Wildlife Africa-Chacma Baboon, Behavior, Habits, Wildlife, African. September 09, 2004. WILDLIFE AFRICA CC. 3 May 2007 http://www.wildlifeafrica.co.za/baboonbehavior.html.

Results so far..

What we have discovered is that the Male Chacma Baboon is very dominant. While observing these creatures, we saw that anywhere the male would go, one of the females out of the 4 would follow him. Following the male, the female would always keep a distinct distance away from the male. Right now, we do not know why this creature behaves in this sort of way. We will be doing further research on this behavior so we can give a better explaination of why they're "playing follow the leader." Also, the females seem to stay together more then the males. No matter where you looked, there were always at least two female chacma baboons together. The males, on the other hand, stayed away from eachother. Every once in a while, the males would yawn or show their teeth to the other male. This was meant to be some kind of a threat. Showing their teeth tells other males to stay out of their territory. You never really seen them come to close together. Otherwise, it would probably cause some kind of physical activity between them.

Our final questions

What are the different behaviors of different genders of the Chacma Baboon and how differently does each gender act toward different species of baboons?

Our Research Paper

Chacma baboons are the largest species of monkeys. Males can weigh from fifty-nine to ninety-seven pounds and are twenty to thirty inches long. Females can weigh thirty-one to thirty-seven pounds and are sixteen to twenty-four inches long. The Chacma live in the southern countries of Africa. They have close set eyes, under a heavy brow, and a dog like muzzle with sharp tusks like upper canine teeth. Also having olive-gray fur, with tails that reach up to 2 feet long.
The Chacma can breed every 1.5 to 2 years. Mating can occur at anytime of the year. For each couple, they can produce a number of 1offspring(that’s the usual number of offsprings that they can have). While raising an offspring, the chacma only take care of them for 12 months. After, the young chacma baboons are free to carry on with life and proceed with surviving on their own. Female chacma baboons can reproduce after 3 years. Male chacma baboons can reproduce after 5 years. The Chacma can usually live up to 45 years old when their in captivity. It’s unlikely for them to live this long if they are out in the wild. Home ranges between 910 and 3,370 ha have been reported. The daily range of a troop varies between 1,609 and 14,484 m.
Teeth chattering and lip smacking are signs of reassurance. Usually performed by a dominant male when another is coming towards him. A female may also lipsmack when approaching a mother and her infant. As in all highly social species, communication is varied and complex. The Chacma utilizes visual signals and gestures, vocalizations, and tactile communication. Juveniles and infants produce some vocalizations unique to how old they are. These include chattering, which is a nasal, grunt-like call emited during play. They also give an ick-ooer sound which communicates a low level of distress. Adult females produce a vocalization during copulation called a muffled growl. The mouth is closed, and the cheeks expand and contract during this call. Tactile communication is common in cercopithecines. Social grooming is used to reinforce social bonds, as well as to remove parasites and debris from the fur. Social mounting is a reassurance behavior. Anubis baboons also perform a friendly nose-to-nose greeting.
The Chacma are quadrupedal, terrestrial primates. They are highly social animals, having a complex multi-male and multi-female social structure. Some cases, one-male units (OMUs) may form within the broader multimale multi-female society, resulting in substantial differences in behavior. All males emigrate from their natal troops. Besides settling in a new troop, males must establish themselves in the male dominance hierarchy of that troop. This typically involves aggressive behavior between males, with the "winner" of an encounter establishing dominance over the "loser." Males do not maintain long-term bonds with their male kin; as is seen in hamadryas baboons. Females behave differently toward one another then they do towards unrelated animals. Chacmas are most likely to aid their kind than they are to become involved in disputes of unrelated individuals. These relationships can extend over multiple generations, with females aiding not only their own offspring, and aunts aiding nieces, but grandmothers aiding their granddaughters. Additional differences in feeding have been noted. Multi-male troops of chacma baboons often forage on fresh grass, Cypress crowns, and the tubers of aquatic plants, especially those of Nymphaea caerulea, or a water lily. OMUs avoided these pants, and focused their foraging on the fruits of the Kigelia pinnata tree, the green seeds of Acacia nigrens, and figs (Ficus sycomorus and Ficus burki). These food sources were ignored by multi-male groups. Unlike hamadryas baboon females, chacma females seem to be less responsive to the OMU male. Female chacma baboons do not respond to male stares. This may be because the male chacma in an OMU does not herd the females as aggressively as does a hamadryas male, and does not bite their necks as a hamadryas male would. However, if females stray too far from the rest of the group, the chacma baboon OMU male will herd the female back into the fold.
The Chacma are known to eat fruits, including Kigelia pinnata fruit and figs from both Ficus sycomorus and Ficus burki. Chacmav also eat leaves, including the crowns of Cypress trees, tree gums, insects, eggs, seeds, including the green seeds of Acacia nigrens, flowers, water lilies (Nymphaea caerulea), grass, rhizomes, corms, roots, tubers, and small vertebrates. One feeding adaptation thought to be shared by all baboons is the ability to subsist on a relatively low quality diet. Baboons can subsist on grasses for extended periods of time. This allows them to exploit dry terrestrial habitats, like deserts, semideserts, steppes, and grasslands.Primary Diet: Omivore.Animal Foods: birds; mammals; reptiles; eggs; carrion; insects; terrestrial non-insect arthropods.Plant Foods: leaves; roots and tubers; wood, bark, or stems; seeds, grains, and nuts; fruit.

Bibliography of 2 of the 4 Books

1.Sapolsky, Robert M.. A Primate's Memoir. 2001. New York: Scribner, 2001.
2.Cheney, Dorothy L., and Robert M. Seyfarth. How Monkeys See The World. 1990. United States: 1990.

Images of Chacma Baboons

These photos were taken by us, at the Bronx Zoo

Our Progress

For our project, we will be extending our observations of Chacma Baboons. To do this, we will be visiting the Bronx Zoo. Each time we visit, we will spend a total of 2-3 hours there. We do not have a limited amount of times that we'll visit the Bronx Zoo, so, we shall be visiting it as many times as possible.(depending on weather and transportation. To extend our research, we will be meeting up at the library or will schedule a time where we would be able to meet up at one of our houses.

Chacma baboons in natural habitat

Some of Our Notes

More Information

More facts about the Chacma Baboon

1. Breeding interval: These animals can breed every 1.5 to 2 years.
2. Breeding season: Mating can occur throughout the year.
3. Number of offspring: 1 (low); avg. 1
4. Time to independence: 12 months (average)
5. Age at sexual or reproductive maturity: (female)3 years (average)
6. Age at sexual or reproductive maturity: (male)5 years (average)
7. Lifespan/Longevity:
   A chacma baboon (P. ursinus) is known to have live up to 45 years in captivity. It is unlikely that many individuals live this long in the wild.
8. Home Range:
   Home ranges between 910 and 3,370 ha have been reported. The daily range of a troop varies between 1,609 and 14,484 m.
9. Communication: Teeth chattering and lipsmacking(not really being technically vocalizations) are signs of reassurance. Usually performed by a dominant animal when another is coming towards him. A female may also lipsmack when approaching a mother and her infant. As in all highly social species, communication is varied and complex. Chacma baboons utilize visual signals and gestures, vocalizations, and tactile communication. Juveniles(we know them as teenagers) and infants produce some vocalizations unique to how old they are. These include chattering, which is a nasal, grunt-like call emited during play. They also give an ick-ooer sound which communicates a low level of distress. Adult females produce a vocalization during copulation called a muffled growl. The mouth is closed, and the cheeks expand and contract during this call. Tactile communication is common in cercopithecines. Social grooming is used to reinforce social bonds, as well as to remove parasites and debris from the fur. Social mounting is a reassurance behavior. Anubis baboons also perform a friendly nose-to-nose greeting.
10. Behavior: These baboons are quadrupedal, terrestrial primates. They are highly social animals, having a complex multi-male and multi-female social structure. Some cases, one-male units (OMUs) may form within the broader multimale multi-female society, resulting in substantial differences in behavior. All males emigrate from their natal troops. Besides settling in a new troop, males must establish themselves in the male dominance hierarchy of that troop. This typically involves aggressive behavior between males, with the "winner" of an encounter establishing dominance over the "loser." Males do not maintain long-term bonds with their male kin, as is seen in hamadryas baboons. Females behave differently toward one another then they do towards unrelated animals. They are most likely to aid their kind than they are to become involved in disputes of unrelated individuals. These relationships can extend over multiple generations, with females aiding not only their own offspring, and aunts aiding nieces, but grandmothers aiding their granddaughters. Additional differences in feeding have been noted. Multi-male troops of chacma baboons often forage on fresh grass, Cypress crowns, and the tubers of aquatic plants, especially those of Nymphaea caerulea, or a water lily. OMUs avoided these pants, and focused their foraging on the fruits of the Kigelia pinnata tree, the green seeds of Acacia nigrens, and figs (Ficus sycomorus and Ficus burki). These food sources were ignored by multi-male groups. Unlike hamadryas baboon females, chacma females seem to be less responsive to the OMU male. Female chacma baboons do not respond to male stares. This may be because the male chacma in an OMU does not herd the females as aggressively as does a hamadryas male, and does not bite their necks as a hamadryas male would. However, if females stray too far from the rest of the group, the chacma baboon OMU male will herd the female back into the fold.
11. Food Habits:Chacma baboons are known to eat fruits, including Kigelia pinnata fruit and figs from both Ficus sycomorus and Ficus burki. They also eat leaves, including the crowns of Cypress trees, tree gums, insects, eggs, seeds, including the green seeds of Acacia nigrens, flowers, water lilies (Nymphaea caerulea), grass, rhizomes, corms, roots, tubers, and small vertebrates. One feeding adaptation thought to be shared by all baboons is the ability to subsist on a relatively low quality diet. Baboons can subsist on grasses for extended periods of time. This allows them to exploit dry terrestrial habitats, like deserts, semideserts, steppes, and grasslands.
    Primary Diet: Omivore.
    Animal Foods: birds; mammals; reptiles; eggs; carrion; insects; terrestrial non-insect arthropods.
    Plant Foods: leaves; roots and tubers; wood, bark, or stems; seeds, grains, and nuts; fruit.
12. More Vocabulary:

• Quadrupedal(quad·ru'pe·dal): an animal, esp. a mammal, having four feet.
• Copulation(cop·u·la·tion): sexual intercourse. a joining together or coupling.
• Terrestrial(ter·res·tri·al): pertaining to, consisting of, or representing the earth as distinct from other planets. of or pertaining to land as distinct from water.
• Emigrate: leave to live in another country: to leave a place, especially a native country, to go and live elsewhere.
• Dispute: To argue about; debate. To question the truth or validity of; doubt.
• Forgaging(for·ag·ing): the acquisition of food by hunting, fishing, or the gathering of plant matter. characterized by or dependent upon the acquisition of food by such means; food-gathering: a foraging people.
• Gnathostomata: comprising all vertebrates with upper and lower jaws.
• Vertebrata: One of the grand divisions of the animal kingdom, comprising all animals that have a backbone composed of bony or cartilaginous vertebr[ae], together with Amphioxus in which the backbone is represented by a simple undivided notochord. The Vertebrata always have a dorsal, or neural, cavity above the notochord or backbone, and a ventral, or visceral, cavity below it. The subdivisions or classes of Vertebrata are Mammalia, Aves, Reptilia, Amphibia, Pisces, Marsipobranchia, and Leptocardia.
• Cynocephalus Porcarius: A large species of African baboon
  http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Papio_ursinus.html

Chacma Baboons Introductory

Title: Chacma Baboons

By: Avery, Candy and Deiona

Introduction:
Chacma baboons are the largest species of monkeys/largest members of the monkey family. males can weigh from 59-97 pounds and are 20-30 inches long. Females can weigh 31-37 pounds and are 16-24 inches long. They live in Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe(which are all located in the Southern part of Africa.) They have close set eyes, under a heavy brow, and a dog like muzzle with sharp tusks like upper canine teeth. Also having olive-gray fur, with tails that reach up to 2 feet long.

Question:
How do male and female Chacma baboons differ in behavior and characteristics?

Hypotheses:
1.Candy: I think that the Males will be more agressive than the females.

2.Deiona: I think that the males and females differ because of their different genders. Different genders always behave differently.

3.Avery: I agree with Candy and Deiona, but i also think that the different genders might have different characteristics towards each other which depicts on how they act.

Materials:

1. Ethograms
2. Cameras
3. Paper
4. Pencil or Pen
5. Chacma Baboons which will be at the Zoo

Resources:

1. http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/chacma_baboon.htm
2. http://www.wildlifeafrica.co.za/baboonbehavior.html
   
3. http://www.safaricamlive.com/Encyclopedia/mammals/Chacma/Chacma-Baboon%20Info%20Page.htm
   

Vocabulary:

1. Cer·co·pi·the·ci·dae: a family of primates that includes all the Old World monkeys except the anthropoid apes and is coextensive with a superfamily.
2. An·i·ma·li·a: the taxonomic kingdom comprising all animals.