Baboons are indigenous to Africa and can be found across sub-Saharan Africa, from Ethiopia to South Africa, in desert, savanna grassland, woodland, forest, and mountain habitats. There is controversy about the taxonomic classification of baboons, particularly because interbreeding is common, but five subspecies are often listed: anubis (or olive), yellow, chacma, hamadryas, and guinea.
Baboons are largely ground-dwelling animals and, unlike tree-living monkeys, have arms and legs of about the same length. The females are half the size of the males and the males have much larger canine teeth. Their lifespan can be up to 40 years.
Baboons have a varied diet that includes fruit, roots, and grubs and other insects. They will eat almost anything and, with hands similar to humans, they will dig for food such as roots and bulbs.
The olive, yellow, chacma, and guinea subspecies of baboon are known as the "savanna" baboons. They live in large mixed-sex groups ranging from 40 to 80 individuals. The hamadryas baboon is socially and structurally different from other subspecies of baboons. It has a multi-level society based on one-male groups with one to four females together with their offspring. They are very social animals and travel and forage in bands of 50-100 individuals during the day, but at night will sleep on rocky cliffs in groups numbering in the many hundreds.
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