Life With Darwin and other baboons

… baboons are neither devils nor saints but animals who like us have very individual personalities, experience a wide range of emotions and possess a capacity for reasoning.’ These are the words of Kobie Kruger, best selling wildlife author, in her foreword to Life with Darwin. Of all the primates in Africa, the Chacma Baboon has arguably received the least attention in terms of comprehensive behavioural studies. Life with Darwin is an account of the work of Karin Saks who, through fostering orphaned baby baboons and attempting to rehabilitate them back into the wild, had the opportunity to observe and record the activities of a number of wild baboon troops. Through her daily interaction with them she brings fresh perspectives to our knowledge of an animal society that is both complex and well ordered. It is a fresh and accessible look at a species that has not always been sympathetically regarded, and its insights go a long way towards redressing this attitude.