The Complex Relationship Between Humans and Baboons

In preparation for an upcoming episode on The Animal Turn, I have just finished reading The Lion’s Historian. This brilliant book by Sandra Swart traces the trajectories of animals’ histories in South Africa. She discusses the myths around lions, the extinction of the quagga, and the making of police dogs. In her final chapter, she discusses baboons and the long entanglement of human-baboon relations.

Swart notes the tightly knit relations between humans and baboons in southern Africa. Indigenous Africans admired baboons and learned from their usage of plants. Historically, humans appreciated the sentry capacities of baboons. However, the development of agriculture and colonization saw these animals increasingly framed as pests and vermin. Another part of this history is how baboons were positioned within ideas of social Darwinism. They were seen as a missing link between animals and humans in the supposed Great Chain of Being. This understanding not only meant that baboons were used as metaphors for racist rhetoric in South Africa but also that they were traded for display in zoos.

The Challenges of Keeping Baboons in Zoos

Keeping baboons in zoos is a tricky business. Swart explains how, in the 1920s, London Zoo created Monkey Hill, an enclosure designed to allow spectators to observe baboon antics. The zoo ordered hundreds of male hamadryas baboons for this purpose. However, there was a mistake. Some of the baboons that arrived were female. What ensued, to use Swart’s words, was a “baboon bloodbath.” She continues:

“The sex imbalance and the confined space almost immediately prompted a massacre. Caught in a literal tug of war between the larger males, most of the females were killed in the first few months. Even then, the males fought over their corpses. The brutality frightened even the zookeepers, who sometimes had to wait days before bolting into no man’s land to recover the bodies. But rather than remove the few surviving females, the zoo thought they could buy peace by adding more females. So, the war broke out again and the death continued, most by shockingly brutal means. By 1931, two-thirds of all the males and more than ninety percent of the females that had been brought to Monkey Hill had died. The zoo authorities eventually removed the surviving females. As the violence waned, so did the public’s interest in the exhibit” (Swart, 2023: 281).

Observations of these violent affairs shaped narratives about baboons and humans. Just as analyses of captive wolves shaped ideas of supposedly alpha males, observations of baboons fueled the narrative that primates are fundamentally violent. However, primatologists like Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey have shown that what we observe in zoos is not ‘natural.’ The dominance paradigm is flawed because, when left to themselves in their habitats, apes exhibit flexible and collaborative behavior. In zoos, social relations are pressured, intense, and constrained. Animals lack the autonomy and space to express themselves.

Baboons at Monkey Hill in London Zoo (source: Meister Drucke)

The fear of baboon violence casts a long shadow. It is used to justify projects like the one at Nürnberg Zoo. This brings us to consider what zoos, and related establishments like aquariums, actually do. Zoos create opportunities to turn animals into spectacles, to research them, to sell them, and, unfortunately, to kill them. Zoos kill animals. I have spoken about Marius the giraffe many times on the show. Marius was killed because his genetics were no longer valued and was then publicly dissected before being fed to lions. Stories like Marius and the baboons highlight the absurdity of zoos as places of care. Many animals die in zoos. Between 3,000-5,000 “surplus” animals are killed in zoos in Europe each year. Working with the lower estimate, that is at least 30,000 animals a decade.

Activists in Nürnberg protested the killing of the baboons and lamented the logics used by the zoo to justify such actions. While zoo management claims they still have three too many baboons for the enclosure, they will leave the numbers as is. Two important words are missing: they will leave the numbers as is for now. Before killing the female baboons, zoo authorities checked if any were pregnant. Concerns over the size of the troop have persisted for years. Activists have criticized the poor management of baboon breeding at the facility. If the animals are having sex, they will have babies. The troop will continue to grow, once again becoming too large for the enclosure and prompting more death. Zoo management states they have tried to use contraception on the baboons, but with little effect.

The Ethics of Animal Reproduction in Zoos

It is crucial to dwell on the reproduction of animals in zoos. Breeding programs highlight another significant way in which the lives and bodies of animals are controlled in these spaces. Zoos are often touted as important sites of conservation. They are said to safeguard against the loss of biodiversity and the extinction of species. To do this, some zoos still capture wild animals, but most rely on captive breeding programs. Breeding animals and trading their genetic materials are central to the business models of zoos. Finding exact figures for how much money specific zoos make, or even how much revenue is generated from a nation’s zoos, is challenging. Nonetheless, it is projected that zoos and aquariums in Europe will make at least US$6.66bn in 2025, rising to US$7.02bn by 2030. The historical framing of zoos as places of education and conservation does not fully disclose their economic objectives.

Understanding Guinea Baboons

News articles covering the killing of the baboons in Germany have tended to follow the same structure. They explain how the troop grew too large, how the zoo closed when the animals were killed, and how activists responded through protest. Very few of these articles have provided details about the animals themselves.

Guinea baboons (Source: New England Primate Conservancy)

Guinea baboons, as their name suggests, are native to West Africa. They inhabit forested and grassland habitats, but their numbers are declining due to habitat loss and persecution by humans as pests. The decline of their numbers in West Africa, coupled with their killing in Europe, points to a disconnect in conservation strategies. As Daniel Ramp noted when he was on the show, the inclusion of a species as protected in the red list is shaped by politics and geography. It is common for animals endangered in one part of the world to be killed in another.

Guinea baboons can live for 35-45 years and form troops of 40-100 individuals. They engage in sexual activities year-round and exhibit polygynous and polygynandrous behavior. Females, in particular, enjoy socializing with one another and care for their young for at least eight months after birth. They are highly social and engage in a range of complex communication strategies:

“They live in intricate, male-dominated, multi-faceted social groups. Their relationships are complex but also very accepting and often promote positive social engagement. Their multi-level, fission-fusion social structure—in which groups join together or break apart based on the groups’ needs and activities—includes stable bonds between males and females as well as a high degree of male‐male cooperation and tolerance. Within this social structure, male Guinea baboons show far less rivalry between and among other males, regardless of relatedness, as well as less aggression towards females than some other baboon species” (New England Primate Conservancy).

These details provide insight into Guinea baboons as a species, but not about the specific individuals who were killed. We only know that they were not pregnant and were not currently being used in experiments. The complexity of who they were and the implications of their loss for those who remain in the enclosure remain opaque.

Who were the 12 baboons who were killed? Whose sisters were they, and who did they have close relationships with? What has been the response of the remaining baboons? Have they shown distress at the sudden disappearance of their kin?

Returning to Swart and the work of many animal historians and ethologists, what is lost when you kill animals is not merely a matter of numbers. You lose a series of connections, relations, and cultures. This should prompt us to question what we want from zoos as spaces. Do they work to sustain the kind of multispecies relations we need to create a more just world?

Conclusion: Reflecting on the Role of Zoos

As I reflect on the tragic fate of the baboons at Nürnberg Zoo, I am left with lingering questions. What does it mean for us to maintain these institutions? Are zoos truly places of conservation, or do they serve other purposes? The stories of the baboons remind us that every animal has a history, a network of relationships, and a role in the ecosystem.

In the end, the fate of the baboons should encourage us to think critically about our relationship with animals and the institutions that house them. We must ask ourselves: How can we create spaces that honor the lives of animals and foster genuine connections between species?

In this exploration, we may find pathways to a more compassionate and just world for all beings.