Gelada baboons grooming.
Gelada baboons grooming.

Gelada

The Gelada, also known as the gelada baboon is an old world monkey from Ethiopia.

Gelada.

Gelada baboon (Theropithecus gelada), Szeged Zoo.

I took these pictures in the Szeged Zoo where geladas share a relatively large area with the various species of African vultures.

Unusual for a primate, geladas mostly eat grass.

Bleeding-heart baboon.

Geladas are also called bleeding-heart baboons because unlike most of their relatives they display signs of fertility on their chests, not on their butts.

Geladas do tend to sit a lot which hides their behinds. As a result, unlike most monkeys that show signs of fertility by becoming pink on their butts, geladas become pink on their chests when they are ready to mate — probably explains why one of their common names is the bleeding-heart baboon.

Geladas

Geladas communicate with each other using complex vocalization, some claim that this might be close in complexity to human language.

Geladas

Further Readings:

Gelada baboon Theropithecus gelada on Primate Info Net.
Gelada (Theropithecus gelada) on ARKIVE.
Gelada Baboon (Theropithecus gelada).
Ethiopia’s Exotic Monkeys.
Unraveling the mystery of gelada monkey melodies on petridish.org.
Gelada on Wikipedia.

Gelada

Last updated: October 14, 2015

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