Finding expression in the face of the chacma baboon

The chacma baboon (Papio ursinus) is the largest (see https://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photo-chacma-baboon-impala-kruger-national-park-specie-papio-ursinus-aepyceros-melampus-image65157078) and most southerly of monkeys. It is also exceptionally well-photographed, allowing us to illustrate its facial expressions.

There are at least four ways in which the face of the chacma baboon is so unlike the human face that we find difficulty in reading its expressions.

Males of the chacma baboon can fang-bare like carnivores (https://www.masterfile.com/image/en/841-03674368). However, the usual facial expression of masculine defensiveness and assertion is an exaggerated yawn, showing the pale eyelids (https://jukit.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/chacma-baboon-11.jpg and https://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photo-chacma-baboon-yawning-yawns-usually-sign-aggression-as-opposed-to-him-being-tired-image48699729 and https://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photo-fierce-baboon-image10588900 and https://www.dreamstime.com/male-baboon-yawning-showing-us-his-teeth-male-baboon-yawning-showing-us-his-teeth-chobe-national-park-botswana-africa-image136323170). This is similar to a 'displacement activity' but serves to show the size and sharpness of the canines as a polite warning.

In the chacma baboon the expression of fear or appeasement is a grin/grimace (adult female: https://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photo-baboon-fear-grimace-chacma-making-as-signal-submission-image58361083 and https://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photo-baboon-chacma-cape-botswana-s-chobe-national-park-africa-image74668460).

Whereas eye movements are extremely expressive in humans, they are extremely inscrutable in the chacma baboon. This is possibly because in humans status is gained mainly by sharing information, whereas in the chacma baboon status is gained mainly by withholding information (https://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photos-chacma-baboon-image14692968 and https://www.dreamstime.com/portrait-chacma-baboon-monkey-chobe-national-park-botswana-image161947287).

The chacma baboon does possess pale ocular features, but these are located in keeping with a theme of non-divulgence and an avoidance of staring.

Firstly, adults of both sexes possess pale patches of fur on the otherwise bare rostrum, which seem designed to distract viewers from the eyes themselves. These can perhaps be thought of as 'false eyes' (see https://www.dreamstime.com/chacma-baboon-papio-ursinus-monkey-moremi-okavango-delta-botswana-wild-mammal-nature-habitat-feeding-frui-fruits-gren-image129580375 and https://www.dreamstime.com/detail-face-chacma-baboon-papio-ursinus-cape-brown-background-image174907750 and https://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photos-large-chacma-baboon-walking-sunlight-image25315923 and https://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photography-chacma-baboon-sitting-river-bank-image36685692 and https://www.dreamstime.com/close-up-portrait-adult-baboon-open-eyes-looking-straight-camera-sunset-taken-golden-light-chobe-image178656554).

Secondly, the pale eyelids are shown to express antagonism in both sexes. This can be the equivalent of a frowning stare but with the eyelids rather than the eyeballs doing the staring, or it can be a signal of appeasement. The half-closed eyes are accompanied by either raised eyebrows (assertive?) or flattened ears (submissive?). The following show the cringing expression in adult females: https://www.dreamstime.com/baboon-open-mouth-exposing-canine-teeth-chacma-papio-ursinus-also-known-as-cape-image108192461 and https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-baboon-with-open-mouth-exposing-canine-teeth-the-chacma-baboon-papio-172432622.html).

The 'neonatal makeup' of the chacma baboon (https://www.dreamstime.com/baboon-monkeys-family-african-wildlife-kruger-national-park-south-africa-baboon-family-cute-little-baby-image201661427 and https://www.dreamstime.com/just-born-cute-young-baby-chacma-babbon-just-born-cute-young-baby-chacma-babbon-kruger-national-park-south-africa-image166023097) involves both a dark/pale contrast (blackish fur on the crown vs pale bare skin on the face of the newborn) and conspicuously reddish hues (particularly on the ears). This vivid colouration evokes the protective instinct of adults and juveniles so strongly that infants need no other facial expression for the first months of their lives.

Publicado el sábado, 11 de septiembre de 2021 a las 02:56 AM por milewski milewski

Comentarios

The following shows that pale eyelids are present already in infants: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/70237076.

Anotado por milewski hace mas de 2 años

Baboons are not monkeys?

Anotado por dianastuder hace mas de 2 años

Baboons belong to the same family as the vervet monkey of South Africa, and are indeed monkeys. The term 'baboon' refers to the genus level whereas the term 'monkey' refers to the family level.

However, now that we are on this topic, I notice in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey that what I might call 'cladistic derangement' has recently spread to include the term 'monkey'. You may previously have heard statements such as 'birds are dinosaurs' and 'whales are hoofed mammals'. These absurd claims arise in a kind of warped thinking in which one comes to conflate descendant with ancestor on the basis that a cladistic line of origination can be drawn between them. Birds are not dinosaurs, and humans are not monkeys - even though it is true that birds evolved from dinosaurs and humans evolved from monkeys.

The bottom line: the chacma baboon is a monkey in every biological sense but has a different vernacular name, much in the same way that the suni and the royal antelope are closely related but only one is called an antelope.

Anotado por milewski hace mas de 2 años

@dianastuder What many may not realise is that the word 'baboon' is onomatopoeic, mimicking the well-known 'boggom' call (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=za839cpwUh0). So, next time you hear that familiar call resounding through a kloof in the Cape mountains, is it not an amusing thought that a monkey is shouting 'baboon' at you?

Anotado por milewski hace mas de 2 años

We are primates with baboons.
Sadly Cape Town municipality is on a mission to kill off male baboons. We seldom see or hear them now. So many troops have been 'removed'.

Anotado por dianastuder hace mas de 2 años

The following shows the maximum eyewhite visible in the chacma baboon: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/41897651. Compare this with https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-student-face-looking-to-side-sideways-54142603.html.

Anotado por milewski hace mas de 2 años

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