Baboons line up for friends rather than safety

Wild baboons organize travel strata, not to avoid predators or fight for food, but just to stay intimate with friends, a new study based on decades of hypothetical challenges to animal behavior.

The study used high-precision GPS collars to track 13 Chacma baboons in South Africa, revealing social bonds (rather than survival strategies) that drive a consistent pattern that scientists have long observed in baboon group movements.

Four theories tested

For years, researchers have troubled why baboons have formed such “progress” when traveling their territory. Some studies show that these arrangements are random, while others propose strategic positioning to protect members of vulnerable groups.

Swansea University Team uses 78 travel progress records to give four competing explanations of baboon sports patterns. Can animals protect vulnerable people, compete for resources, follow leaders, or just move with their preferred companions?

“It is surprising that the consistent order that the baboons we studied see is not to avoid dangers as seen in prey, as we position ourselves among social groups, or better access to food or water as we see in the movement of the plain Zebra,” said Andrew King, PhD, at Swansea University. “Instead, it is driven by the people they are with. They just move with their friends, which creates a consistent order.”

Social network effect

The study reveals a clear pattern: baboons with more social connections usually walk among traveling groups, while baboons with less intimate relationships find themselves in front or behind. This is not a conscious security strategy, it comes naturally from their existing friendship.

Imagine a group of friends walking on the street. The most popular people may end up in the center simply because more and more people want to walk next to them, not because someone plans like this.

“We know that strong social bonds are important to baboons, and they are associated with longer lifespans,” explains Marco Fele, the study’s lead author and doctoral student at Swansea University. “But in this case, these bonds are not serving a specific purpose. The order of travel we see is just a by-product of these relationships, not a strategy with direct benefits.”

A new concept: social clothing

These findings introduce a fascinating concept called animal behavior research. Just as the architectural Xerox is a triangular space that occurs when the arches are placed side by side (usable but not the original purpose), the social waving hand is a pattern of behavior, arising from side-effects of other evolutionary characteristics.

In this case, the consistent travel formation comes from the natural tendency of baboons to stay near social partners rather than any evolutionary pressure to maintain specific parade orders.

What makes this discovery particularly interesting is how it contradicts the traditional assumptions of animal population behavior. Instead of each model of direct survival function, some models may be just an inevitable consequence of social life.

Survive beyond the smartest

This study systematically excludes the most common explanations of baboon formation patterns:

Protection assumptions: Male baboons do not position themselves in front and back positions of alleged risks to protect others from danger.

Competition assumptions: The lower baboon did not rush forward, demanding first access to food resources.

Leadership hypothesis: Major characters, including Alpha males, usually stay near the center rather than moving from the frontline.

“In the baboon groups we study, social connections are higher, and the higher individuals usually walk in the middle of the group, while the lower ones are usually in front or behind,” King noted. “In these group sports, it’s like heading to a familiar sleep point – it’s likely that you already know where they’re going. So the baboons in front aren’t really leaders; they’re just ahead.”

Technology reveals hidden patterns

The breakthrough comes from using GPS tracking collars to record baboon positions every second for more than a month. This detail reveals what was missing from previous observational institutes: significant consistency of people walking through group exercises.

The researchers determined the progress by looking for periods where groups moved rapidly with highly coordinated formations, while individuals extended into lines rather than dispersed clusters. These journeys average about 10 minutes, but can last more than an hour.

Most of the progress occurs in the afternoon, with baboons heading to their sleeping places, which suggests that these are not exploration tasks, but routine commutes, and everyone knows the destination.

Friendship Network

Perhaps most striking, the study found that the distance between baboons during group trips directly reflects their social relationships during rest. Close friends keep close when moving, creating a strategic positioning look when it’s actually social preferences in action.

The study also showed that major baboons changed their anterior and postpartum positions less frequently than subordinates, but direct neighbor identities changed more frequently, which was associated with more social connections to choose from.

Impact on animal behavior

The study challenges scientists to rethink how to interpret animal population behavior. Not every organized model must function adaptively, and some may be a beautiful by-product of social evolution.

“Our study highlights the potential of such spurts in collective animal behavior,” Fele stressed. The concept may extend baboons far beyond other species whose social bonds affect group movement.

These findings also show how modern technology reveals hidden truths about seemingly well-understood behavior. Sometimes, the most obvious explanations (such as the formation flight for safe takeoff) may miss out on a more subtle but equally important force to shape animal society.

As researchers continue to study collective animal behavior, this baboon study reminds people that the social life of animals is as complex and influential as the survival needs.

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