The Social Life of Baboons

This is the story of life in a baboon troop living on an African nature reserve, Wildcliff. Like us, baboons are intensely social. While dominated by an alpha male, a troop of Chacma baboons has a "matrilineal" society. Females stay with their natal troop, maintaining a social order based on birth. Males tend to migrate between troops, and vie for supremacy and reproductive rights.

In this talk, we explore the intriguing interactions among baboon males and females, adults and juveniles, and their evolutionary functions. We'll see them mate and munch, play and fight, howl and hug. We'll meet Jack London and Victor Hugo, and watch a video of their daily life.

• Ian's slides
• Chacma baboons (Papio ursinus)
• Baboons, Babies and Bonding
• Baboon Politics: A Change in Leadership
• A Primate's Memoir by Robert Sapolsky
  

• Evolution (The Ancestor's Tale)
• Tropical Ecology (exploring biodiversity)
• Plate Tectonics (the moving continents)
• Hudson Valley Geology (a billion years of rocks)
• Hudson Estuary Flora and Fauna (life in a New York river)
• Restoration Ecology (in Costa Rica and South Africa)
• The Far Side of the World (restoration ecology in New Zealand)