Africa Wild

Chacma Baboon
Papio ursinus


Augrabies - 6.10.2012


Description
Previously considered a subspecies of the ‘savanna baboon’, Papio cynocephalus, or classed together with other baboons as a subspecies of Papio hamadryas, the chacma baboon is a large monkey with a dog-like face, pronounced brow ridges, and relatively long limbs with short digits. The tail is fairly short, and the first third is characteristically held upward, with the rest drooping down. The coat is short, coarse, and light grey to dark olive-brown in colour, with blackish lower limbs, and the nose is rather upturned. The male is larger than the female, with a slightly longer mane of hair around the neck and shoulders, and much larger canine teeth, which can measure up to a formidable five centimetres in length. The bare skin of the face, ears, hands and feet is dark, and the female chacma baboon develops a large, brightly coloured sexual swelling during oestrus, while the rump becomes bright red during pregnancy. Newborns are black, with a red face.
Coat colour may vary both within groups and between different areas, with two subspecies usually recognised: the southern or Cape chacma baboon (Papio ursinus ursinus) and the grey-footed chacma baboon (Papio ursinus griseipes). A third, the Ruacana or Shortridge’s chacma baboon (Papio ursinus ruacana), is also sometimes recognised, although this needs further research.

Size
Head-body length: 50 - 114 cm. Tail length: 45 - 84 cm. Male weight: 21 - 44 kg. Female weight: 12 - 17 kg

Biology
Like all baboons, the chacma baboon has a varied and opportunistic diet, taking a range of plant material, including bulbs, roots, shoots, seeds and fruit, as well as fungi, lichen, crabs, fish, invertebrates, and other small prey. Larger prey, such as young antelope or small livestock, are also occasionally taken, and the chacma baboon may raid crops in settled areas. Most foraging takes place on the ground, during the day.
The chacma baboon is highly social, living in groups of around 20 to 50, or sometimes up to 130 or more. Each group usually contains a number of adult males, with a dominance hierarchy determining access to females. Breeding does not appear to be seasonal, but timing may depend on food availability. The female chacma baboon gives birth to a single young, or rarely twins, after a gestation period of around six months. The young is carried clinging to the female’s breast at first, later riding on her back, and is weaned by about 8 months. Sexual maturity is reached at around 4 to 8 years, at which point females usually stay within the troop, while males leave to join another troop. Adult females give birth around once every 15 months to 2 years, and the chacma baboon may live for up to 30 years in the wild.

Range
The chacma baboon ranges across southern Africa, south of the Zambezi River, occurring as far north as southern Angola and southwest Zambia. P. u. griseipes occurs in southwest Zambia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, P. u. ursinus in South Africa and Namibia, and P. u. ruacana in southwestern Angola and northern Namibia.

Habitat
The chacma baboon can be found in a variety of woodland, savanna, semi-desert, scrubland, steppe and montane habitats, at elevations of up to 2,100 metres or more, and is the only non-human primate to inhabit Fynbos and Succulent Karoo. The species requires cliffs, hills or trees as night-time refuges, and is dependent on daily access to drinking water, although one troop in the Namib Desert has overcome this by obtaining moisture from plants and conserving water through resting during the hottest part of the day.

Links: Clive Walker: Signs of the Wild

Vervet Monkey
Chlorocebus pygerythrus

Photo taken in Augrabies Falls NP



Distribution and habitat
The vervet monkey ranges throughout much of Southern and East Africa, being found from Ethiopia, Somalia and extreme southern South Sudan, to South Africa. It is not found west of the East African Rift or the Luangwa River, where it is replaced by the closely related malbrouck (C. cynosuros). The vervet monkey inhabits savanna, riverine woodland, coastal forest and mountains up to 4000 m. They are adaptable and able to persist in secondary and/or highly fragmented vegetation, including cultivated areas, and sometimes are found living in both rural and urban environments.
Introduced vervet monkeys also reside in Barbados, and Saint Kitts and Nevis. Dania Beach, Florida is home to about 20 introduced vervets

Diet
The vervet monkey eats a primarily vegetarian diet, living mostly on wild fruits, flowers, leaves, seeds, and seed pods. In agricultural areas, vervets become problem animals, as they will raid bean crops, peas, young tobacco plants, vegetables, fruit, and various grain crops. Carnivorous aspects of their diet include grasshoppers and termites. Raids of cattle egrets and weaver bird nests have been observed where the vervets will eat the eggs and chicks.

Smith's Red Rock Rabbit seen in Augrabies



Introduction: Smith's red rock rabbit (Pronolagus rupestris) is the smallest of southern Africa's 3 rock rabbits It is nocturnal and will forage within close range of its habitat of rocky hillsides.

Distribution: Rocky habitats of the lower central highlands from the Orange River north as far the Rehoboth region.

Diet: Green sprouting grass.

Colouring: Reddish-brown fur interrupted on the upperparts by a black grizzling. It has grey cheeks. The dark brown bushy tail has a black tip.

Breeding: Females give birth to 1 or 2 kittens. During the gestation period of 35 to 45 days, grass and fur-lined nests are built in small holes in the ground for birthing.

Weight: 1.6kg.

Dassie in Augrabies




DIT and baby: Augrabies, October 2012
by nan

by nan


Hyrax - Augrabies
by Lis

Track of Eland - Augrabies

Klipspringer - Augrabies

Augrabies "Rabbit"... I don't know which one

Unidentified one





Leporidae found in Augrabies (according to SANPARks mammals list):
Scrub hare (Kolhaas) Lepus saxatilis
Smith's red rock rabbit (Smith se rooiklipkonyn) Pronolagus rupestris
Cape hare (Vlakhaas) Lepus capensis