page_title: Baboon
section_title: Birth, rearing young, and life expectancy
hierarchical_section_title: Baboon / Behavior and ecology / Birth, rearing young, and life expectancy
caption_attribution_description: Olive Baboon (Papio Anubis) with baby, Lake Manyara National Park, Tanzania
context_page_description: Baboons are primates comprising the genus Papio, one of the 23 genera of Old World monkeys. There are five species of baboons, commonly known as hamadryas baboon, Guinea baboon, olive baboon, yellow baboon and chacma baboon. Each species is native to one of five areas of Africa and the hamadryas baboon is also native to part of the Arabian Peninsula. Baboons are among the largest non-hominoid primates and have existed for at least two million years.
  Baboons vary in size and weight depending on the species. The smallest, the Kinda Baboon, is 50 cm in length and weighs only 14 kg, while the largest, the chacma baboon, is up to 120 cm in length and weighs 40 kg. All baboons have long, dog-like muzzles, heavy, powerful jaws with sharp canine teeth, close-set eyes, thick fur except on their muzzles, short tails, and nerveless, hairless pads of skin on their protruding buttocks called ischial callosities that provide for sitting comfort. Male hamadryas baboons have large white manes. Baboons exhibit sexual dimorphism in size, colour and/or canine teeth development.
  Baboons have diurnality and are terrestrial, but sleep in trees, or on high cliffs or rocks at night, away from predators.
context_section_description: Females typically give birth after a six-month gestation, usually to a single infant; twin baboons are rare and often do not survive. The young baboon weighs approximately 400 g and has a black epidermis when born.
  The females tend to be the primary caretaker of the young, although several females will share the duties for all of their offspring.
  After about one year, the young animals are weaned. They reach sexual maturity in five to eight years. Baboon males leave their birth group, usually before they reach sexual maturity, whereas females are philopatric and stay in the same group their whole lives.
  Baboons in captivity have been known to live up to 45 years, while in the wild their life expectancy is between 20 to 30 years.
caption: Young Olive baboon on the back of its mother, Lake Manyara National Park, Tanzania
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