One or rarely two males are present in the group. They are often found in trees or on termite mounds keeping watch or moving ahead of the troop checking for danger and the best feeding areas. Although the male is prominent in the troop, a female actually controls the group and a hierarchy exists within the females to keep order while the male is away. If the male is not protecting the females and offspring well, the females will gang together and attack the male forcing him out of the group. A single young is born following a five and a half month gestation.
Maturity is reached between two and a half and four years.
Conversion of savannah to farmland has also lowered numbers. Currently, however, the patas is not listed as threatened. A great reference book on primates is Noel Rowe's The Pictorial Guide to the Living Primates . Dr. David Macdonald's Encyclopedia of Mammals is one of the great standards for mammal information including the primates. Another excellent text on African mammals is The Kingdon Field Guide to African Mammals .