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OneWorld Magazine presents
GELADA BABOONS
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"Geladas spend 20 % of their day, more than any other primate, leafing through each others fur in search of dead skin, matted hair, bits of leaf and burrs, but there is a lot more to grooming than simply devotion to hygiene. For geladas, it is an expression of friendship and loyalty, which serves to cement the bonds that hold them together." |
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Geladas spend the cold night sleeping on near vertical cliff faces that
drop down over 1,000 feet to the forests below. Here they are safe from
predators of the night like hyenas and jackals. Every morning they slowly
climb up in the warm dawn light and spend the day traveling along the
plateau edge as well as grooming, playing, and mostly, picking and digging
up the montane grasses that only grow here and are vital to their
existence.
Being a strict vegetarian that eats only grass is a struggle, but they are superbly adapted to finding something tasty to eat from even the most dried up looking piece of grass. They have highly opposable thumbs that allow for very selective picking of just the green grass blades and short stumpy fingers that are ideal for the rhythmical digging that they engage in for hours each day. When the ground is dry, they are often encircled in a plume of dust as they dig down for the succulent roots of the grasses. In order to maximize the amount of time they can spend searching for food and eating, geladas don't bother to stand up between feeding patches but just "shuffle" along on their bottoms! Geladas are very beautiful baboons - other baboons have fairly unsightly inflamed bottoms which serve to signal their sexual state. Instead, geladas have neat firm bottoms that look like hot cross buns! A perfect pad for shuffling along the grass. But all baboons need to be able to display their mood and state, such as, when the females are ready to be mated, or the males are feeling aggressive and ready to pick a fight. For geladas, this display site would have been poorly located on their bottoms due to the amount of time they spend sitting on them. Instead they have evolved on their chests unique hourglass patches of skin that become vivid red when aroused - hence their other name, the "Bleeding heart Baboons". Harem or Sisterhood? | Neat Firm Bottoms |
Text © 1996 Linda Waddell - All Rights Reserved - Photo Credits, © L.Jauregui - Web Production and Design, OneWorld Magazine. - OneWorld Magazine is hosted by The EnviroLink Network - OneWorld WWW Site © OneWorld Magazine - All Rights Reserved. |