Ugandan Primates --- Olive Baboons

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Gottshotz

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During my recent trip to Uganda to photograph Gorillas and Chimpanzees, I came across several different monkey species, including a troop of Olive Baboons foraging along the main road to Kibale Forest Park in Northern Uganda.

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This was the dominant male of the group, who barring accidents or predation, should live to a ripe old age of 30 years. These Olive Baboons are the most wide-ranging species, being native to 25 countries throughout Africa. They are omnivorous opportunists who will occasionally catch ,kill and eat their smaller monkey cousins, the Vervets, to supplement their diet. Their main weapon is their canines, which are almost 2 inches long---so are longer than a Leopards !

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This Baboon infant is probably still on mother's milk ( up to 3-4 months old ), but is testing out possible food sources for later life. The female's gestation period is around 6 months, and they usually have one offspring at a time.

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Grooming to remove ticks and other pests is usually carried out by lower ranking individuals trying to curry favour and seeking assistance from higher ranking members of the troop.
 
Interesting set. The shot of the little guy is really striking. Well done.
Thanks Dan--- got quite close to these guys, however was very aware of the large male who was making sure I wasn't a threat, yet !
I was very happy with the performance of the Tamron 70-180 mm f2.8 I brought along for this trip---it was a critical factor when we moved into the dense jungle where the light was unpredictably flaky--bright shafts of light peppered with deep shade--very tricky.
 
No. 2 is superb.
Thanks Scott -- yep, I was as fascinated by this youngster as he was of me photographing him --interesting how well developed his eyes were for one so young, but I guess evolution has given him this highly developed sense early on as he would be an obvious target for predators and great eyesight will give him a better chance of evasion !
 
Love these really well done!
Thanks George -- I will be posting several other "monkey" shots of some of the various species I saw during this very brief (5 days only in country) visit to Uganda --they will include Red Colobus, Black and White Colobus, Red-tailed Monkeys, Chimpanzees and Gorillas .
 
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