📷 Charles J. Sharp · CC BY-SA 4.0
📷 Giles Laurent
📷 Muhammad Mahdi Karim
IUCN: Least Concern
Olive Baboon
Papio anubis
KingdomAnimalia›PhylumChordata›ClassMammalia›OrderPrimates›FamilyCercopithecidae›GenusPapio
About
Olive baboons live in troops of 20 to 60 or more, ruled by a strict web of alliances rather than a single leader. Grooming is social currency: fur-picking sessions build the friendships that decide who feeds beside whom and who backs whom in a fight.
Their foraging toolkit is remarkably broad. Troops flip stones for scorpions, dig tubers, strip acacia pods, and hunt hares and young gazelles together — flexibility that has made the baboon one of Africa’s most adaptable primates.
Key Facts
⛰Habitat Savanna, open woodland, and forest edges near water
🍃Diet Fruit, grasses, seeds, insects, and small animals
📏Size & Weight Head-body 50–110 cm; tail 45–85 cm
•Weight 10–37 kg (males much larger)
⏳Lifespan 20–30 years wild; up to 45 in care
🗺Range A broad band from West Africa across the Sahel to East Africa
MammalPrimate
Key Facts
⛰Habitat Savanna, open woodland, and forest edges near water
🍃Diet Fruit, grasses, seeds, insects, and small animals
📏Size & Weight Head-body 50–110 cm; tail 45–85 cm
•Weight 10–37 kg (males much larger)
⏳Lifespan 20–30 years wild; up to 45 in care
🗺Range A broad band from West Africa across the Sahel to East Africa
Photo Credits
#1Charles J. Sharp · CC BY-SA 4.0
#2Giles Laurent · CC BY-SA 4.0
#3Muhammad Mahdi Karim · GFDL 1.2
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