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.
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