Gelada Baboons, Simien Mountains, Ethiopia
Gelada pairs by the escarpment edge.
The gelada baboon is endemic to Ethiopia and lives primarily in the Simien Mountains region, where several thousand can be found. It is extremely tame and peaceable and is unusual among primates in that it feeds mainly on grass and roots. The bare dirt patch behind the geladas in this photograph has probably been caused by rooting. Apart from feeding, their main activity is grooming, which appears to be a mechanism for forming bonds within the group. Each male has a harem of around half a dozen females, and individual harems often live together to defend themselves against groups of 'bachelor males' looking to take over harems of their own. Bonds in the harem are formed by the solidarity of the females, and only one of the females will have a strong relationship with the male at any given time. The gelada is known to have a vocabulary of at least 27 contact calls, an unusually large number for non-human primates.
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