A new study from researchers at Swansea University, Wales, revealed a surprising truth about the social behavior of baboons.
In the Cape Peninsula of South Africa, the research team studied 78 distinct travel movements of a group of wild chacma baboons (Papio ursinus).
In their 36-day trial, clear patterns emerged in the ways the baboons arranged themselves while walking.
When it came to explaining the baboon’s self-ordered movements, the team tested several theories that were consistent with other species.
First, they hypothesized that the baboons were walking in a formation that protected the youngest and most vulnerable among them, the same way that elephants often do.
Secondly, they studied whether they were arranging themselves strategically to better compete for resources.
Lastly, the researchers questioned if they were ordering themselves based on the influence of a group leader.
But the prevailing theory — and ultimate conclusion of the study — found that baboons simply preferred to walk beside their closest friends.
“We find no evidence that progression orders are adaptive responses to minimize an individuals’ risk, maximize their resource acquisition, or are the result of decision-makers leading the group,” Marco Fele, the study's lead author, wrote in Behavioral Ecology.
“Instead, we find that individuals’ positions are predicted by pairwise affiliations, resulting in consistency in order, with more dominant individuals occupying central positions in progressions.”
“Surprisingly, the consistent order we see for the baboons we studied isn't about avoiding danger like we see in prey animals when they position themselves in the middle of their social group,” Dr. Andrew King, associate professor and study co-author, told Swansea University, “or for better access to food or water like we see in the movements of plains zebra.”
“Instead,” King explained, “it's driven by who they're socially bonded with. They simply move with their friends, and this produces a consistent order.”
King also noted that the baboons at the head of the “troop” aren’t inherently “leaders.”
“In the baboon group we studied, the more socially connected, higher-ranking individuals usually walk in the middle of the group, while lower-ranking baboons are often out in front or at the rear,” King said.
“During these group movements — like heading to a familiar sleeping spot — it's likely that the group already knows where they're going. So, the baboons at the front aren't really leading; they're just out ahead.”
Although baboons are not listed as endangered, they have faced mounting threats from human interference and habitat loss.
Studies like these provide greater insight into baboons and how they use cooperation and social bonding to overcome emerging challenges of habitat degradation and climate change.
“The key to the success of baboons is living in a troop,” a Love Nature narrator said in the 2024 documentary “Baboons: Rules of the Troop.”
“The bond shared by [a baboon and] his family is the fabric of every baboon society and the secret to their success over millions of years as they continue to adapt to new challenges, living each moment by the rules of the troop.”
Header image via Diego Delso / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA) and Bernard DUPONT / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
