A baboon has a large head and long, sharp canine teeth, and a muzzle much like that of a dog. A baboon's arms are about as long as its legs. Male baboons are much larger than the females and have longer canine teeth.
Baboons live mostly on the ground but sleep in such places as trees or cliffs.
Several kinds of baboons live in Africa and southwestern Arabia. These include the hamadryas baboon, which lives on plains and rocky hills of Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and eastern Africa near the Red Sea, and the chacma baboon, which inhabits rocky regions and open woodlands in southern Africa. Male hamadryas baboons have long, gray hair on the head and shoulders. Chacma baboons have grayish-brown body hair and a long ruff of hair around the neck. Males occasionally kill mammals and share the meat with other group members.