ABSTRACT
Distributions further suggest that man in some way stands apart from the rest in his ecological needs. I n the African rain forests many primate species are sympatric. They can survive in the same habitat because i t offers a variety of eco logical niches, and so i t is not surprising that there is also a niche for man. The picture changes as we leave the rain for ests and move into the savannas; the number of primate spe cies that share a common habitat now declines to two or three. Man is still w i t h them. Finally, in the semi-deserts and the colder areas, we find only one monkey species in each area. The semi-deserts of the Red Sea coasts are inhabited
only by hamadryas baboons, the cold and barren Ethiopian mountains only by geladas; only anubis baboons are found in the desert mountains of Tibesti, and only the Barbary macaque in the Atlas range. Since no physical barrier pre vents other species from colonizing the hamadryas and the gelada areas, we must conclude that their habitats offer pri mates only one ecological niche. But even here, we find man. Apparently his ecological niche is so different from that of his pioneering fellow primates that both may exist in the same harsh environment.
