A baboon of dry grasslands and rocky areas; the adult male’s long mane looks like a cape around the shoulders.
Males develop a silver-coloured mane, while females are mainly olive-brown.
Hamadryas baboons in northern Ethiopia’s highlands eat fruit and grass-like leaves, and sometimes scrape lichens from rock surfaces. These baboons search for food from fruit-bearing trees to rocks underfoot.
A 2023 study followed a band of 21–37 hamadryas baboons at Borena-Sayint National Park from June 2016 to May 2017. Researchers recorded food handling, chewing and ingestion during 837 observation hours and monitored fruit and flower availability monthly. Fruit represented about 32% of the estimated annual feeding diet, and graminoid blades about 21%. The monthly fruit proportion ranged from roughly 1% in November to 58% in March. Consumption of fruit and flowers rose with their availability. No single food plant was consumed in every month, indicating a highland diet assembled from changing monthly resources.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
The 2023 Borena-Sayint study found that cultivated crops contributed roughly 9% of the annual diet estimated from feeding records. The researchers identified crop foraging and resulting conflict with farmers as conservation concerns. They recommended including neighbouring farmland in management plans, considering buffer zones planted with unpalatable species and involving local communities in conservation. These proposals address places where human farming and baboon ranges meet.