Seasonal shifts in olive baboon (<i>Papio anubis</i>) activity budgets at Kainji Lake National Park, Nigeria: adaptive strategies in a changing environment

Abstract

Understanding the activity budgets of primates is essential for assessing behavioral adaptations to environmental changes. This study investigates the seasonal variation in activity budgets of olive baboons (Papio anubis) in Kainji Lake National Park, Nigeria. Data were collected over two consecutive years using direct observations and scan sampling to categorize behaviors, including feeding, grooming, resting, locomotion, and social interactions. We observed that feeding remained the dominant activity across seasons, with no significant differences between wet and dry periods. Grooming and social interactions declined during the wet season, likely due to environmental constraints such as heavy rainfall. Enforced resting increased significantly in the wet season, while movements remained consistent in duration but increased in distance traveled, suggesting seasonal behavioral shifts in response to resource availability. Our results confirmed the adaptability of olive baboons in response to climatic variations, demonstrating behavioral flexibility to optimize energy expenditure and foraging efficiency. Our study also revealed a remarkable impact of environmental variables, such as temperature and precipitation, on primate activity patterns. Understanding these adaptive responses is crucial for conservation planning, particularly as climate change, habitat disturbances and other anthropogenic activity affect primate habitats in tropical savannahs.