IN DEFENSE OF ‘ DARWIN ’ S MONKEY ’
A fresh look at baboons from five decades in the field .
BY INGA KIDERRA | ILLUSTRATION : DEBORAH ROSS
BABOONS GET A BUM RAP . Commonly seen as ugly , vicious and stupid , they ’ re often the butt of a joke . But Shirley Strum , the UC San Diego biological anthropologist who ’ s been studying wild olive baboons in Kenya for the past 50 years , knows they ’ re the opposite of their stereotype . She knows this firsthand from a lifetime of fieldwork , like Jane Goodall with chimpanzees or Diane Fossey with gorillas . “ Baboons are smart ,” she says . “ They ’ re adaptable , flexible , collaborative and incredibly complex .”
While Strum ’ s discoveries about baboon society ( yes , society ) challenge previous scientific notions , the popular perception still has a ways to go . Look up “ baboon ” in the dictionary , and after the definition of a genus that includes several species , you ’ ll find an epithet — a person that ’ s dimwitted , brutish and crude .
As unfair as the insult is , it is true that baboons are big and strong , among the world ’ s largest monkeys . They also have close-set eyes and doglike muzzles with menacingly sharp canine teeth . Unlike many simian cousins we find “ cute ,” baboons grow out of their adorable baby faces . And their characteristic four-legged stride ? That can look intimidating , like a bully ’ s saunter , especially on a full-grown male with a large mane .
None of these features help their image , nor do the bright pink swellings on their bottoms , which even Strum says “ aren ’ t very appealing — except to other baboons .” While Strum won ’ t argue with anyone ’ s aesthetic preferences in primates , she can and has been arguing for years with what people think they know about baboon behavior .
First and foremost , baboons are anything but stupid . In fact , in Kenya and other parts of Africa and Arabia where they roam wild , local people who live off the land tend to come into conflict with baboons precisely because they ’ re as smart as they are . In places where baboons have learned to raid food crops or even carry off small livestock , they ’ re seen as pests , a threat to human livelihood .
Because of this , Strum ’ s work in Kenya has evolved through the decades to include not only observation of baboon behavior but also a good deal of conflict resolution between people and baboons . With human encroachment and a changing climate , it has additionally grown to include conservation .
But “ Darwin ’ s monkey ,” as Strum has come to call baboons — due to Darwin ’ s frequent references to them and how they ’ ve also affected her views on natural selection — can provide us with valuable insights on our own existential dilemma . Yet before Strum could draw any conclusions , she first had to meet a few baboons .
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