Chapter VI: The Anubis Baboon. Papio Anubis

_Cynocephalus anubis_, F. Cuvier et Geoffr., Hist. Nat. Mammif., vol.
iii., livr. 50 (1825).

{267}_Cynocephalus anubis_, Waterh., Mamm., Zool. Soc. Lond. (2), p. 8
(1838); Gray, Cat. Monkeys Brit. Mus., p. 34 (1870).

_Cynocephalus olivaceus_, Is. Geoffr., Cat. Méth. Primates, p. 34 (1851);
id. Arch. Mus., v., p. 543, note (1848).

_Papio anubis_, Schl., Mus. Pays Bas, vii., p. 125 (1876).

CHARACTERS.--Snout very elongated; nape of the neck crested. Face black; general colour uniform olive-green; the hairs being grey at the base and ringed higher up with bars of black and yellow; arms and legs like the back; the naked hands and feet flesh-colour.

DISTRIBUTION.--Interior of West Africa. Lagos, in the Bight of Benin, is the port from which this species is generally shipped to Europe.

HABITS.--The Anubis Baboon is not a common species in captivity, as the natives are terribly afraid of its strength and ferocity. The animals wander about in companies, inhabiting chiefly the dry, rocky, mountainous regions in the interior of West Africa, feeding on the peculiar vegetation that they find there; digging up the roots of grasses, and gnawing with their strong jaws the roots and stems of an extraordinary short, woody, top-shaped plant, known as _Welwitschia_, which produces in its youth two leaves, and never more in its lifetime, though attaining to a great age. They feed also on the _Scytonema_, a moisture-storing plant, which grows only on rocks. Though affecting dry, rocky regions from choice, the Anubis Baboons often descend in large hordes to the cultivated country, and ravage the gardens of the natives.

Mr. Darwin, in describing the expression of pleasure, joy, and affection in Monkeys, observed that, when they were pleased, the form of the lips differed a little from that when they were angered. In the case of an Anubis Baboon which was first {268}insulted and put into a furious rage by his keeper, who afterwards made friends with him, Mr. Darwin relates that, "as the reconciliation was effected, the Baboon rapidly moved up and down his jaws and lips, and looked pleased. When we laugh heartily, a similar movement or quiver may be observed more or less distinctly in our jaws; but with Man the muscles of the chest are more particularly acted on; whilst with this Baboon, and with some other Monkeys, it is the muscles of the jaws and lips which are spasmodically affected."