Baboons carry trauma the way humans do — long after the violence ends.
After two were shot and killed in South Africa, the rest of the troop showed signs of stress and anxiety that lasted for weeks, according to a Durham University study.
What happened?
In the town of Alldays, South Africa, a group of chacma baboons that forage in a local garbage dump became the subject of an unexpected study after two of them were fatally shot by humans.
Originally focusing on their feeding and movement patterns, Dr. Mokhlesur Rahman, a Ph.D. researcher from Durham University, shifted his focus to examine how the surviving baboons responded to the attack.
The results were sobering: the baboons began to travel faster and farther, ultimately abandoning their sleeping site near where the shooting occurred. Social dynamics shifted, too. Aggressive behavior dropped, the troop's grooming patterns changed, and the baboons' self-scratching spiked, a classic sign of anxiety in primates.
Rahman collected fecal samples from the group, which revealed heightened levels of glucocorticoid hormones associated with stress.
"These levels remained raised for several weeks," the research noted.
Interestingly, the baboons did not appear to alter their interactions with local dump workers, suggesting they could differentiate between humans who posed a threat and those who did not.
Why is this change in behavior concerning?
The findings provide a rare glimpse into the emotional impact of human violence on wildlife.
These baboons weren't just scared; they also exhibited signs of trauma that mirror responses seen in humans, raising red flags about how animals are psychologically impacted by conflict with people.
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"Insights such as this are vital to understand the potential impacts of human persecution," the authors wrote.
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What's being done about it?
Research like Rahman's can help shape better conservation strategies, particularly in human-wildlife conflict zones. Organizations like Wildlife ACT and the Endangered Wildlife Trust are working across South Africa to prevent conflict through public education, relocation programs, and community conservation efforts.
On a broader scale, protecting shared habitats and discouraging retaliation killings are key.
Similar to recent efforts that helped reduce wolf killings in the western U.S. through coexistence policies and non-lethal deterrents, better protections for primates may rely on understanding their emotional and behavioral responses to trauma.
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