AN INTER-POPULATION COMPARISON OF BODY-WEIGHT IN CHACMA BABOONS

Data from chacma baboons (Papio cynocephalus ursinus) are used to asse ss the impact of environmental variables on male and female body weigh t. The most influential factors were found to be mean annual rainfall and temperature. The nature of the relationship differed from that pre viously described for the genus Papio as a whole. This was due to the inclusion of the ecologically distinctive Drakensberg Mountain populat ion. We consider the implications of the finding.