ABSTRACT
T HE ECOLOGY OF BABOONS is of particular interest to the student of human evolution. Aside from man, these monkeys are the most successful ground-living primates, and their way of life gives some insight into the problems which confronted early man. W e have been concerned with an attempt to reconstruct the evolution of human behavior by comparing the social behavior and ecology of baboons with that of living hunter-gatherer groups, and applying these comparisons to the archaeological evidence (Washburn and DeVore 1961a). The following description of baboon behavior and ecology is based on field data collected during 200 hours of observation by Washburn in the game reserves of Southern Rhodesia in 1955, and on more than 1200 hours of observations by both of us in Kenya game reserves during 1959. The original study was financed by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, and the second trip was part of a study of the origin of human behavior supported by the Ford Foundation. Analysis of the field data is being completed under a National Science Foundation grant for the study of primate behavior. W e wish to thank the foundations, and the numerous people who helped us in Africa--especially J. Desmond Clark, Stephen Ellis, L. S. B. Leakey, B. L. Mitchell, and B. Verdcourt.
