Baboon Perspectives on Early Human Ancestors One Approach to Reconstructing Early Hominin Ecology and Behavior

Baboon Perspectives on Early Human Ancestors brings together the most recent information on the behavior and ecology of Papio baboons and early hominins. Building on a long tradition and integrating recent developments, it discusses the ways that baboon behavior can enhance our understanding of our early ancestors. This approach augments interpretation of the archeological record and provides hypotheses for the gaps in the record and for the millions of years before the record began. Baboon behavior complements the widely used chimpanzee models, but also generates competing hypotheses. Among the many topics covered in the book are foraging and predator defense; multi-level societies and male-female relationships; social and ecological cognition; and communication and the roots of language.

Dr. King was trained in anthropology at Cornell and UCLA and in primatology with Sherwood Washburn at UC Berkeley. He taught anthropology and primatology at Monmouth University in New Jersey and is now Professor Emeritus. His research includes close observation of free-ranging olive baboons in Tanzania and pursuit of uncooperative chacma baboons in South Africa. Previously he studied captive chimpanzees at Holloman AFB; and hamadryas baboons, geladas, and mandrills in the Los Angeles Zoo. Dr. King’s primate behavior text (Routledge 2016) emphasizes the significance of primates in general for understanding the evolution of human behavior. His most recent publications appeared in the Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.