Permission Pending from Lincoln Park Zoo
The natural predators of the hamadryas baboons are leopards,lions, cheetahs. Another unlikely predator of the hamadryas baboon is the Verreaux’s eagle. All the natural predator have been virtually eliminated from most of the range of the P.hamadryas by humans. In the article Verreaux’ s eagles as potential predators of hamadryas baboons in Eritrea, Zinner et. al described some encounters they viewed between hamadryas baboons. Zinner noted that in all the encounters the hamadryas baboons responded with alarms and the juvenile often fled to adult groups and clung to them, particulary to the adult males( Zinner et al. 1999).
In his famous 1968 Study, Kummer argued that the decreased predation pressure and the dispered nature of food in the semi-desert habitat of the hamadrayas baboons might have led to the one to three level of social organization which allowed the hamadryas baboons to be able to break into smaller groups to as they forage for food. Conversely, the Savannah baboons have a much higher risk due of predation in the open Savannah so they remain in a closed group. Kummer noted that in the Savannah, the baboons adopted to the conditions( higher predation pressures) by evolving large aggressive males who can jointly drive smaller predators from the closed groups and by supplementing their diet by occasionally eating small mammals, whereas the hamadryas baboon face less predation pressure so they are smaller than the savanna baboons and they have abandoned the closed group to a one-to level system so as to forage for the dispersed food( Kummer 1968).
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN)/World Conservation Union lists the hamadryas baboons as rare species meaning the hamadryas have small world populations that aren't at present danger but they are vulnerable or at risk (International Zoological Conservation Organizations and Computer Systems). The rare status applies to the population of hamadryas baboons on the African continent and across on the Arabian peninsula. Additionally, the nations states of Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Somalia have had civil wars and these countries have been further hit with severe droughts. Therefore the habitat of the hamadryas baboons has been gravely affected. Moreover, deforestation for firewood, overgrazing by goats and over cropping still remains a problem because of the growing population in aforementioned countries. At the turn of the century some 40% of Ethiopia was covered by forests compared with 2.7% today( The Horn of Africa Facts). The conservation of hamadryas baboons and their environment is necessary. The active engagement of governments is very important.
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This Page was created by Stella Kenyi, stkenyi@davidson.edu, as student website for Biology 323, Animal Behavior, At Davidson College