Tuesday, 6 August 2013 - 04:43
Baboons Emmen At Ease Again
The dust has settled in the group of 112 hamadryas baboons at Emmen zoo. The monkeys barely roamed around since last week Monday and hardly touched their food and drinks. Since last weekend the baboons show more of their normal behavior, the zoo announced on Monday.
The baboons are moving around the island again, they groom each other and occasionally there are small fights. They still eat something less than normal and they all choose to go to their shelter through one of the two entrances. However, zoo biologist Wijbren Landman thinks that the monkeys will all behave normally again very soon.
Landman calls the behavior mass hysteria of the group and only one researcher has contacted him that he also has seen this behavior in the wild. No literature studies discuss this strange behavior nor report other zoos around the world this kind of behavior. At the zoo in Emmen this behavior has occurred three times before. Although the park was flooded with suggestions on possible causes, mainly from concerned citizens, it is not clear what caused the frightened behavior of the baboons.