3 November 2010 Observations 10:34am-11:32am

Weather: Temp-49F/9C; Sunny; Wind-Calm; Humidity-55%; UV-2 Low; Dew-34F; Visibility 10mi.
When I arrived the group were all sitting by the west door, with Bole right in front of the door.  They seem to favor this spot. Perhaps it is the sun.  You can't really blame them; on a nice day, I love to just sit out in the sun and do nothing.
Today, I was fortunate enough to meet with Harvey, one of the zoo's docents.  He's very  knowledgeable about the baboons.  And he helped to clear up a lot of questions I had about the group.  For one, I now know that the baboon who's sex I was unsure of is definitely a female.  Her name is Zula, she is 26 years old, and has arthritis.  As most baboons in the wild rarely live past 20 years, Zula is very old.  Her story has touched my heart.  As Harvey explained, Zula is in the middle of struggle to maintain her hierarchy, as she can no longer breed.  One of the mother's wants nothing to do with her, while the other just tolerates her.  Once this was revealed to me, so many interpretations of Zula's sitting near-but-still-at-a-distance to the mother's while they are nursing fired in my brain.  But, I'm here to observe!  Zula's arthritis is very apparent.  She kind of reminds me of one of those little old ladies with a shopping cart you see on the streets of NY.  She hunches and moves a little slowly but, don't let that fool you.  She can still move across that enclosure "with a quickness!"  And after watching Zula and Bole grooming each other on Monday, I think he still accepts her as a part of his harem.
Another interesting anecdote Harvey told me is that at night, when the baboons are indoors, the keepers leave old episodes of Scooby Doo playing for them.  Apparently, they are fascinated by them!  "Scooby dooby doo where are you..."
During this visit, I noticed interesting grooming between Bole, Kaia, and Jabari.  Bole made a small noise, that I couldn't really hear because of the glass, and chattered his teeth.  Within 3-5 seconds, Kaia, who was sitting immediately behind Bole and nursing Jabari, stood on all fours beside Bole.  (Mind you, all the while Jabari was still attached to Kaia's breast.)  Bole started to groom her side.  And after 1.5 minutes, Kaia and Bole touched noses and she sat with her back towards him.  Bole continued to groom her back.  After four minutes of this, Jabari, who was still nursing but staring at Bole, stopped nursing and started to groom Kaia's arm.  The three of them carried on like this for another 3 minutes.  All the while, Jabari would intermittently stare at Bole and then continue grooming.  However, during this time Jabari never approached Bole.  Nor did Bole make any motions towards Jabari.  The dynamics between the three of them were just completely engrossing.

1 November Observations 12:15pm - 1:15pm

Weather: Temp:45°F/7°C Sunny; Wind:NNW at 10mph; Humidity: 43°; UV:3 Moderate

When I arrived the harem was congregated in the west corner of the exhibit.  All adults were sitting and the babies were nursing on Kaia & Rebecca.  Kaia and Rebecca are further apart today than I have seen recently (10m today instead of previously observed 3-5m).  The smaller non-lactating baboon (I still don't know if this is a male or female but, I hope to find out soon) approached Bole and made a barking like noise for <.5s.  Bole then stood on all fours and allowed this baboon to groom his side.  After <5s, the pair moved to the west side doors to the enclosure.  Once there, they groomed each other for a total of 36 minutes.

While Kaia was nursing Jabari, she found a leftover pumpkin from Halloween and began to eat it.  It's so fascinating to watch them together.  Kaia held on to the pumpkin with two hands and pulled off pieces with her teeth.  She would then hold the piece with her hand and chew off bits.  After she did this three times, her baby decided he would give it a try and chewed on pieces Kaia had dropped.  He tried to take pieces off of the remaining pumpkin squash but, he mostly just ended falling on his bottom as the pumpkin moved to the other side of the rock ledge.

After 40 minutes the group moved from the west area to the east area near the observation deck.  I followed slowly and was so surprised that they were sitting up by the glass.  Unfortunately, I think we were all surprised and the troop then returned to the west door.  Luckily, the group repeated this pass five more times over the next 20 minutes.  On the last trip to the east rocks, (thanks to the help of a little 3 yr old girl) I was able to get close to the group and take some photos.  They stayed on this side with the little girl banging at the glass for 7 minutes.  I think the mother and child closest to the little girl were Kaia and Jabari but, the sun was so bright it was hard to tell.  Kaia was not too thrilled with the little girl and slapped the glass twice.  She also opened her mouth but, did not show her teeth.  In my research, I found that Kaia was exhibiting more of a warning behavior rather than threatening, as she did not display her teeth.  Perhaps, Kaia sensed that the little girl was just a little girl and not much of a threat.  Though, at that moment, I could not help but think that maybe the baboons watch us as much as we watch them.

The video is just some footage I took while observing them.

22 October 2010 Observations 12:10-1:15pm

Weather: Temp - 52F/11C, Wind - 10mph, Sunny at the moment but, it doesn't seem like that will stay for long.


I'm sick.  I've had a hacking cough since Tuesday and have been so congested that breathing is a little laborious.  And it's really cold today.  But, moving about does help some.  And, the group's list of behaviors are due on Wednesday so hopefully this will help to get things done.


On my last visit, I found that I was a bit overwhelmed in observing behaviors.  All six of these baboons are doing so many different things, it's hard to keep up.  So, in following Dr. Basil's advice, I'm just going to focus on the simple and not what I think it means.

I recently read these articles that I think will help in narrowing down my observations:

Abegglen, J.-J., V. Dasser, H. Sigg, and A. Stobla.  “Life History of Hamadryas Baboons:

Physical Development, Infant Mortality, Reproductive Parameters and Family Relationships.”  Primates 23.4 (1982): 473-487.

Barrett, L. and S.P. Henzi.  “The historical socioecology of savanna baboons (Papio

hamadryas).”  Journal of Zoology 265 (2005): 215-226. 

Beck, Benjamin B.  “Tool Use in Captive Hamadryas Baboons.”  Primates 13.3 (1972):

276-296.

Schreier, Amy L. and Larissa Swedell.  “The Fourth Level of Social Structure in a Multi-

Level Society: Ecological and Social Functions of Clans in Hamadryas Baboons.”  American Journal of Primatology 71 (2009): 948-955.

The Abegglen, Barrett, and Schreier articles focus on the structure of a baboon clan and their basic behaviors.  For instance, the clan is a patriarchal society.  There will be one male to many females, and the status of a female is based on her breeding ability.  Males will also steal females from other clans.  Their society has four levels - small groups called harems, two or more harems unite to form a clan, four or more clans unite to form a band, and several bands unite to form a troop.  In the wild, a troop can consist of up to 200 baboons.


In focusing on the simple actions and recalling the articles, I noticed several behaviors:

• Foraging - the oldest adult male inspects food or water for 3-5 seconds before picking it up.  If he takes it, the rest of the harem will take food/water from that exact location.
• Resting - Baboon in a seated position with no movement and eyes are closed.
• Gain attention - When the juveniles want attention from their mother or another female adult, they grab and hold the hair near the adult's face for 2-5 secs.  So far, I've only seen them do this when they want to nurse.  I wander if they do this at other times or if it is purely a queue for nursing time.

12 October 2010 Observations 1:27pm - 2pm

Weather: partly cloudy, wind west @ 4mph, humidity 85%, dew point 58F
Temp - 67F, 19C


In response to noises and various stimulus, I noticed that the baboons widen their eyes and move their brow bones forward in the direction for two seconds.  In the 30 minute period I observed them, this action was accompanied by movement towards the stimuli.  I think this is a curiosity/questioning behavior that can be studied over the course of the project.  


It is pretty cloudy today.  And there has been some light rain on and off.  However, while I was observing, there were moments (5-8 mins) of sun.  During these breaks in the clouds, the babies seemed to have more activity.  So much so, that the mothers use their tails as a leash to keep them reigned in.


Take a look at the photos:  Prospect Park Baboons

Purpose

The purpose of this blog is to keep updated on everyone's findings during their field observations.  Briefly list what you observed during visit to the baboons.  And the rest of us can comment.  That way, in addition to our journals, we will have a log of observations to refer back to when composing our report.