The diet of the hamadryas baboon is varied because of the meager food resources found in the areas where they live. The food distribution in these semi-desert areas is very dispersed( Barton et al. 1996). Additionally the kind of food available to the hamadryas baboons is dependent on they type of season. Hamadryas baboons are omnivorous and will often eat a wide range of things; they spend a lot of time gathering food by climbing into trees, picking, digging, or tearing from the ground. During the rainy season, the hamadryas baboons will eat from a variety of plentiful foods ranging from wild roots, blossoms, seeds, grasses, and doum palm nuts to leaves especially the leaves those of the acacia trees ( Swedell 2002) . Conversely during the dry season, these baboons are forced to partake on sisal leaves and the thick waxy leaves of the dobera glabra. Moreover, the hamadryas baboons might occasionally eat termites, other insects, and small mammals such as dik diks. In Hans Kummer’s famous study on hamadryas baboons, he reportedly saw a 3 year old female hamadryas baboons hopping on three legs carrying a dead young dik dik under her arm and against her side( Kummer 1968).
Feeding of hamadryas baboons is not fixpunkt and occurs at several places such as watering holes, en route to watering hole during the daily travel path into the savanna, and mostly away from the sleeping rock. Few studies have been undertaken regarding the type of season whether dry or wet , and the average length of the daily travel of hamadryas baboon. Naturally, one would assume that the more abundant the food, the length of the daily travel of the hamadryas would be smaller because the hamadryas would not have to travel far to find food. However in Larissa Swedell's study at Awash national park, she found that the hamadryas baboons at Filoha had longer daily path length in the rainy season compared to dry season
( Swedell 2002). She noted that this ran contrary to the socioecology theories; however, still not enough research been able to clarify the relationship between seasonality and the ranging patterns of behavior. The hamadryas baboons forage in large groups for food especially when food is abundant; however, they may break into smaller units primarily the one-male units to forage for food during period of food scarcity ( Kummer 1968). The scarcity of food depending on the seasonality and dispersion of food affects the cohesion of the large troop.
The availability of water sources for the hamadryas baboons depends on the season. During the short rains and long rains, the hamadryas baboons don’t have too far to travel far to find pools of standing water that are cool and algae free. However during the dry season, Kummer noted that the hamadryas baboons often frequent two or three permanent watering pools in their home range during their daily route (Kummer 1968).
In Swedell’s study at Filoha, she remarked that the hamadryas baboons may only need to come to Filoha during the dry season only to obtain water, whereas during the wet season there is standing water available elsewhere( Swedell 2002).In order to drink, hamadryas baboons will often rest their weight on their forearms in order to lean forward and drink; they will also wrap their tails around a rock in order to further secure themselves. Additionally, the hamadryas baboons will often dig for water during the dry season. Kummer was able to document that the hamadryas baboons often dug individual drinking holes a few distances from natural water pools by pulling out the wet sand using their hands( Kummer 1968) . The hamadryas baboons will often take mid afternoon siestas at the watering pools during the dry season.
Links
This Page was created by Stella Kenyi, stkenyi@davidson.edu, as student website for Biology 323, Animal Behavior, At Davidson College