{"id":383805,"date":"2025-08-30T00:38:17","date_gmt":"2025-08-30T00:38:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/383805\/"},"modified":"2025-08-30T00:38:17","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T00:38:17","slug":"the-unexpected-reason-baboons-march-in-order","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/383805\/","title":{"rendered":"The Unexpected Reason Baboons March in Order"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\"Baboons<\/a>Baboons walking in progression on South Africa\u2019s Cape Peninsula. Credit: Vittoria Roatti<\/p>\n

Baboons have long puzzled scientists with their habit of walking in neat lines across the African landscape. Were they protecting the vulnerable, following leaders, or competing for food?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A Swansea University team used high-resolution GPS to track wild chacma baboons and tested these theories.<\/p>\n

Why Baboons Walk in Lines<\/p>\n

Scientists at Swansea University have found that baboons line up while walking not as a defense tactic or strategic move, but simply to remain near their closest companions.<\/p>\n

These primates often move in organized formations called \u2018progressions\u2019 when traveling through their habitat. Past research struggled to agree on why they do this. Some suggested the order was random, while others believed it was deliberate, with the most vulnerable animals kept in the middle to reduce danger from predators.<\/p>\n

To investigate further, Swansea researchers used high-resolution GPS devices to track a troop of wild chacma baboons (Papio ursinus) living on South Africa\u2019s Cape Peninsula. The results, published in the journal Behavioral Ecology, showed that the patterns of movement were shaped by social connections rather than by efforts to avoid threats.<\/p>\n

\"Baboons<\/a>Close-up of baboons at the Tsaobis baboon project. Credit: Dr. Andrew King
\nTesting Four Hypotheses<\/p>\n

The team analysed 78 travel progressions over 36 days and showed that the order in which the individual baboons traveled was not random.<\/p>\n

The researchers tested four potential explanations for the baboon progression order:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Protecting the vulnerable (risk hypothesis)<\/li>\n
  2. Competing for resources (competition hypothesis)<\/li>\n
  3. Following leaders (group decision-making hypothesis)<\/li>\n
  4. Patterns emerging from social relationships (social spandrel hypothesis)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    After analyzing the data, the researchers found that the baboons\u2019 movement patterns were driven solely by their social relationships.<\/p>\n

    \"Baboons<\/a>Baboons walking in line at the Tsaobis baboon project. Credit: Hannah Peck
    \nNot Leaders, Just Friends<\/p>\n

    Dr. Andrew King, Associate Professor at Swansea University, said: \u201cSurprisingly, the consistent order we see for the baboons we studied isn\u2019t about avoiding danger like we see in prey animals when they position themselves in the middle of their social group, or for better access to food or water like we see in like we see in the movements of plains zebra. Instead, it\u2019s driven by who they\u2019re socially bonded with. They simply move with their friends, and this produces a consistent order.<\/p>\n

    \u201cIn the baboon group we studied, the more socially connected, higher-ranking individuals usually walk in the middle of the group, while lower-ranking baboons are often out in front or at the rear. During these group movements\u2014like heading to a familiar sleeping spot\u2014it\u2019s likely that the group already knows where they\u2019re going. So, the baboons at the front aren\u2019t really leading; they\u2019re just out ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

    This map shows the movement of baboons across their habitat, with each dot representing an individual\u2019s location. Colors indicate dominance level\u2014purple (low), pink, orange, and yellow (high)\u2014revealing how individuals of different ranks travel and cluster together. Credit: Dr. Andrew King<\/p>\n

    The \u2018Social Spandrel\u2019 Effect<\/p>\n

    This finding introduces the concept of a \u2018social spandrel\u2019. In buildings, spandrels are the triangular spaces that emerge as by-products when arches are placed side by side. In biology, a spandrel refers to a trait that arises not because it was directly selected for, but as a side effect of something else. In this case, the consistent travel patterns among baboons emerge naturally from their social affiliations with each other, and not as an evolved strategy for safety or success.<\/p>\n

    Marco Fele, the study\u2019s lead author and PhD student at Swansea University, said: \u201cWe know that strong social bonds are important for baboons \u2013 they\u2019re linked to longer lives and greater reproductive success. But in this context, those bonds aren\u2019t serving a specific purpose. The travel order we see is simply a by-product of those relationships, not a strategy with immediate benefits. Our study highlights the potential for these kinds of spandrels in collective animal behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Reference: \u201cBaboon travel progressions as a \u201csocial spandrel\u201d in collective animal behaviour\u201d by M Fele, I F\u00fcrtbauer, M Lurgi, M Papadopoulou, A M Bracken, C Christensen, M J O\u2019Riain and A J King, 11 March 2025, Behavioral Ecology.
    DOI: 10.1093\/beheco\/araf022<\/a><\/p>\n

    Never miss a breakthrough: Join the SciTechDaily newsletter.<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Baboons walking in progression on South Africa\u2019s Cape Peninsula. Credit: Vittoria Roatti Baboons have long puzzled scientists with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":383806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3847],"tags":[38091,12309,15637,70,110813,16,15,1717],"class_list":{"0":"post-383805","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-animal-behavior","9":"tag-ecology","10":"tag-primates","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-swansea-university","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-wildlife"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115114928217843594","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}