BABOON

Papio ursinus

Body weight:  14 - 44kg (31 - 97lb.)

Total length:  107 - 157cm (43 - 63in.)

Pregnancy:  180 days / ± 6 months

Number of young:  1 / 2

Life expectancy:  ± 18 years

The baboon is the largest wild primate living occurring in South Africa. 
They form troops of sometimes more than fifty individuals.  The troops are ruled by dominant males; in small troops by a single individual and in larger troops by as many as twelve.  Males sit idly at a vantage point ready to bark a warning of any dander; they also serve to protect the troop by keeping the youngsters from straying and by staying on the edges of a moving troop.
Adult male baboons have dangerously long fangs and they will not hesitate to gang up to attack their natural enemies, which venture too close, including full-grown pythons, leopards and cheetah. Eating almost anything edible, it may surprise the uninformed that the rhizomes and bulbous bases of grass stems probably constitute the most important single food item in the baboon's menu. Stones are overturned in their search for scorpions, spiders and insects.  Even the young lambs of duiker, klipspringer, impala, sheep and goats are (exceptionally) captured and, at times, eaten while still alive.