Baboon Bear

Description:

The typical colour of a northern Namibian chacma Baboon is a grizzled yellowish-brown with a blackish band along the back, on the crown of the head and on the neck. The upper party of the limbs are yellowish, the hands partly tinged with yellow.

The length of the tail is about the same length as that of the head and body. The limbs are long, the hind foot about twice the length of the forefoot, the digits, particularly the first digit, short and thickened.

An important character distinguishing the sexes is the formation of the ischial callosities, the horny epidermal thickenings on the rump. In the females these are separated in the middle by a while space, their inner edges lying on either side of the vulva. In the males these callostities fuse across the middle below the anus.

Habits:

Chacma baboons are gregarious and live in troops up to 130 individuals  which are composed of multiple adult males, adult females, and their offspring.  Chacma troops are characterized by a doiminance hierarchy. Chacmas are unusual among baboons in that neither males nor females form strong relationships with members of the same sex. Instead, the strongest social bonds are often between unrelated adult males and females. Baboon troops possess a complex group behavior and communicate by means of body attitudes, facial expressions, vocalizations and touch.

The chacma baboon often sleeps in large groups on cliffs or in trees at night to avoid predators. Some troops use the same sleeping sites over lenghty periods, others will use different sites at different times and these sites may be used by one or more troops at different times.

The Chacma Baboon troops may start to move to the resting sites quite early in the afternoon, from 15h30 onwards, depending on food availability. In cold, windy weather the troop may move only a short distance and remain sitting,out of the wind, in sheltered corners sunning themselves.

Habitat:

The chacma baboon inhabits a wide array of habitats including woodland, savanna, steppes, and subdesert, from the grassy alpine slopes of the Drakensbergto the Kalahari Desert.  During the night the chacma baboon needs hills, cliffs, or large trees in which to sleep. During the day water availability may limit its range in arid areas.

Source: J D Skinner and R H N Smithers: the mammals oft he southern african subregion; Wikipedia