ABSTRACT
Mainland Africa has a taxonomically diversified primate fauna, including two families of strepsirhines, the galagids and lorisids; genera belonging to the two subfamilies of Old World monkey, the cercopithecines and colobines, and two genera of great apes, the chimpanzee and gorilla, both belonging to the hominine subfamily. In a continent with a variety of forested habitats, savannas, and deserts, and with primates that are larger than those found in Madagascar and the neotropics, mainland communities are frequently composed of arboreal, semi-terrestrial, and terrestrial species, as well as nocturnal strepsirhines. Primates living in rainforest communities include arboreal frugivores, semi-terrestrial frugivores, specialized arboreal folivores, nocturnal galagos and lorises that are predaceous insect-eaters, and chimpanzees that are ripe-fruit eaters but also hunt and eat meat. They frequently hunt and eat species of monkeys that they live with, most often of red colobus monkeys. A half dozen genera of baboons and their close relatives inhabit open country and near-desert habitats. They tend to live in large, complex social groups that are regulated by aggressive behaviors and dominance hierarchies. Geladas forage on grass blades, seeds, and underground bulbs, globe-like plant parts that may resemble an onion, in huge herds consisting of hundreds of individuals, with many core reproductive units comprised of unimale-multifemale groups.
