p. 551 | European Baboon

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 7, 1882

European Baboon

European Baboon.—As the chamois is the only antelope found in Europe, the baboon is the only quadrumana on that continent. It is found on the rocks of Gibraltar. The commandants of the fort have orders to protect these apes, and record all curious facts regarding them. It appears from this register that at present the tribe of baboons consists of twenty-five individuals, which always occupy that side of the rock which is sheltered from wind. It is supposed that the wind, from whatever direction, is hurtful to them. They avoid it with the greatest care; and they can detect a change twenty-four hours in advance, so that, when the officers see the apes shifting from one side of the rock to the other, they look out for a change of weather. The apes eat grass with avidity; roots, bulbs (especially those of oxalis), wild olives, and the fruit of a small date which grows naturally on the rock. They will not touch any fruits the soldiers put in their way, except grapes, of which they are very fond. They sometimes descend to the gardens of the town in search of figs. The apes drink at a spring in a cavern, near the level of the Mediterranean, at the steepest part of the rock. They make light of the difficulties of a rock which is four hundred metres in height, and the sides of which are perpendicular. In their gambols their favorite amusement is to disappear behind the borders of the precipice, and let themselves down from one projection to another until they are a few feet from the line of the breakers, then to climb the giddy height again with an equal agility.—Scientific American.