Activity budgets of olive baboon (<i>Papio anubis</i> f.) at Gashaka Gumti National Park, Nigeria

Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate the activity budgets of olive baboon (Papio anubis) at Gashaka Gumti National Park (GGNP). A habituated baboon troop referred to as the Gamgam / Gashaka troop was studied for a period of twelve (12) months. At the beginning of the study, there were 16 individuals in the troop comprising 4 adult females, 1 adult male, 1 sub-adult male, 3 juvenile females, 4 juvenile males and 3 infants. Time fixed-point focal sampling method was adopted to determine activity budgets. Results obtained indicated that the baboons spent 34.14% of their time feeding, 35.83% resting, 9.08% grooming, 4.47% handling infants, 11.19% travelling and 0.28% playing. Generally, activity budgets did not differ significantly ( p > 0.05) across months. Olive baboon food habit showed that food items mostly eaten were fruits, comprising 43.98% of feeding time, while 22.41% and 7.47% were spent feeding on grasses and seeds respectively. It is recommended that GGNP management should intensify effort to check anthropogenic activities such as poaching, cattle grazing and bush burning for efficient conservation of baboon populations.

Keywords: Activity, baboon, budgets, food, habituated, investigation