baboons walking | charcoal

Baboons are among Africa’s most expressive and intelligent primates, living in large, tightly bonded troops shaped by a well-defined social hierarchy. Dominant males maintain order and defend the group, while females form the stable heart of the troop, raising generations within their family lines. Their babies are endlessly entertaining — curious, mischievous, and constantly learning. In their earliest weeks, infants cling to their mothers’ bellies, and as they grow stronger they graduate to riding high on her back, gripping her fur like tiny, determined passengers as the troop moves across the landscape. Play is their classroom, but discipline is firm and ever-present, with mothers, aunties, and older juveniles guiding behaviour and correcting boundary-testing with gentle but effective authority.