‘Collar Cameras’ Reveal Baboons Snack on Antelope Dung
Miniature video cameras attached to the collars of baboons revealed that the animals eat antelope feces — a previously unknown foraging behavior.
According to a study published in the International Journal of Primatology this year, the ingenious new camera devices offered researchers an unprecedented glimpse into the secret lives and diets of chacma baboons.
Researchers in the Anthropology department at the University of Durham, U.K., collaborated with the BBC Natural History Unit to develop the camera collar prototype for the documentary series Animals with Cameras in 2017.
The researchers deployed collar cameras attached to four chacma baboons in South Africa as part of the BBC documentary and later analyzed footage from two of the devices.
The collar cameras recorded footage showing baboons carefully selecting and consuming the dung of antelope species such as kudu, impala, and duiker.
This unusual eating habit, known as “coprophagy,” appears to allow baboons to gain vital nutrients when wild fruits and vegetables are scarce in the dry winter months.
‘These Cameras Take People Out of the Equation’
Baboons normally flee at the sight of human observers. However, according to the University of Durham, the miniature video cameras concealed within collars allowed researchers to gain a “primate-eye perspective” into the animals’ lives.
“Typically, in primate behavioral research, people tend to habituate primates to human presence. But by being there, you might bias some of the results in the data you collect,” Ben Walton, co-author of the study and doctoral candidate at the Department of Anthropology at Durham University, U.K., tells Nature news publication Mongabay.
“These cameras take people out of the equation, and you can observe some really detailed aspects of their lives without the effect of human presence.”
The footage captured by the collar cameras opens up new questions about how baboons exploit different food resources.
“One of the reasons they might be feeding on antelope droppings is because there’s not a lot of natural vegetation at that time of the year,” Walton tells Mongabay.
“It suggests that the dry season might be quite hard for them.”
The researchers believe that the collar cameras have vast potential for primate research, including studies of social behavior, mate selection, attention patterns, and reactions to human presence.
Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos and center photos via ‘On-primate Cameras Reveal Undocumented Foraging Behaviour and Interspecies Interactions in Chacma Baboons (Papio ursinus)’ published in the International Journal of Primatology.
