Original subtitles

NARRATOR: In Kasanka National Park in Zambia

lives a troop of baboons like no other.

They are Kinda baboons, a species only recently

identified and still little-understood.

Living alongside them are four dedicated researchers

whose mission is to uncover the secrets of these remarkable monkeys.

This is a real-life soap opera

with its ups and downs...

Heroes, villains.

And love stories.

And the team is with its characters every step of the way.

(CHITTERING)

(THEME MUSIC PLAYING)

(CHITTERING)

Powerfully built with long dog-like snouts and large formidable teeth,

baboons are often thought of as aggressive.

They are some of the largest and most ill-tempered monkeys

in the world.

(AGGRESSIVELY CHITTERING)

The five most well-known species, including these yellow baboons,

are spread across Africa and Arabia.

Their brawls are notoriously vicious.

But in Kasanka National Park in central Zambia, there’s a sixth species,

the Kinda baboon.

Until a few years ago, it was thought to be a subspecies of the yellow baboon.

It’s now been classified as a species in its own right

and, as such, is almost completely unstudied.

Kinda baboons are more slender than their yellow cousins

and have flatter faces.

They are also furrier and their hair has a distinctive soft, silky texture.

But it’s their chilled-out behavior that really sets them apart.

Males seem to have abandoned aggression

for an altogether more affable approach to life.

Far more interested in friendship than fighting,

they buck the baboon trend.

Kindas really do seem to be kinder.

But much about these peace-loving primates is still a mystery.

American biologist, Anna Weyher, is determined to change that.

She’s spent the last six years getting to know

one particular troop of Kinda baboons.

In the beginning, I was doing things...

Pretending I was eating grass, not paying attention,

I would groom my fleas by myself.

So they didn’t think I was looking at them directly,

but acting sort of like them, doing similar things,

just to gain their trust, and for them to see how, um...

I was not that different from them.

Looking at fur patterns, body shapes, and mannerisms,

has helped Anna and her team identify over 60 members

of a troop.

But to make studying them easier, individuals need names.

I decided that I would name them after musicians.

When a mother, say Ella,

every infant she gives birth to, the name will start with an "E".

So Ella has Elvis. Ella has Elton. Ella has Eminem.

All named after musicians.

NARRATOR: These musical monkeys all have distinct personalities.

Garfunkel is a grumpy and uneasy alpha male.

His second-in-command, Simon, is more laid-back.

Among the females, taciturn Ella is outranked by headstrong Madonna.

Even the newest additions to the troop are already

displaying different characteristics.

Baby Eminem is bold and curious.

Little Israel is more cautious and reserved.

By living alongside them Anna and her team hope to

understand more about how these characters are connected to each other,

and why they behave the way they do.

Life in Kinda Camp starts early.

It’s 20 past 5:00 and the sun has only just crept above the horizon.

Baboons get up before dawn

and are already looking for breakfast by sunrise.

The team needs to move quickly if they’re to catch up.

ANNA: These are just fresh tracks from now, yeah?

MAN: Yes.

ANNA: You can tell that they’re fresh.

OK, so. We’re going that way. All right.

Fresh tracks tell them in which direction the baboons are moving.

Anna finds the troop’s genial deputy leader.

ANNA: This is Simon. He’s our second-ranking male.

NARRATOR: His easygoing nature

has made him something of a favorite with the team.

He’s a little bit lazy sometimes.

He will sit at the base of a tree

where one of his female friends will be up eating, right now,

it’s Madonna,

and wait as she messily drops pods.

That way, he doesn’t have to climb the tree.

Simon and Madonna are spending a lot more time together

and Anna is keen to keep tabs on them.

He’s very diligent about being near his females and grooming them.

Madonna is swelling right now.

So by sitting at the base of the tree where she’s feeding,

he can make sure when she comes down that he’s with her.

NARRATOR: The pink sexual swelling

around the buttocks signals a female will soon be

in estrus and ready for mating.

Simon needs to stay close to Madonna to make sure he’s first to mate

with her when the time comes.

Anna has discovered that, unlike other baboons, Kindas form long-term

male-female relationships.

By watching Simon and Madonna,

she can see just how these connections begin.

But the baboons have something else to offer Anna’s project...

um, he’s just taking a rest but often times when they sit on, um,

trees or logs like this,

it’s a good chance to get a fecal sample.

Fecal-sampling, that’s "poo-collecting" to the uninitiated,

is an important aspect of the team’s work.

Each sample contains a wealth of genetic information.

ANNA: We see an individual we know

drop a sample for us, we can then go pick it up

and we put it in a certain solution that preserves the DNA.

I take it all back to the United States where I then...

We’re able to do the proper analysis and see who’s related to whom.

Anna’s dream is to one day build a genetic database

of this baboon troop, a full family tree.

Along with her behavioral observations,

she’s gaining unprecedented insight into the lives of Kinda baboons.

She needs several samples from each member of the troop.

And in the dense bush you sometimes need eagle eyes

to spot when a baboon does the business.

Yes. Marley, Kennedy. Got a fecal sample.

MAN: Oh, great.

NARRATOR: Nice and fresh.

And a positive ID.

The researchers must be 100% sure they know

which individual provides each sample.

ANNA: Just a small, tiny bit of it is all we need.

It’s super important because it gives us the actual wider picture

of what the things that we think are happening in the group

from watching the behavior.

Now we can do non-invasive sampling and get genetics from this.

I don’t have to draw blood from my animal,

I just can take a tiny bit of it and put it in a tube.

Take it back home and get it tested.

Oh, perfect. Right to the line.

It’s easy to see whose mom is who.

Infants don’t let go of their mothers’ bellies for the first two weeks of life,

and continue to be carried and cuddled by them for six or eight months.

(CHITTERING)

Identifying dads is a bit trickier.

We have so many ideas and thoughts of who is the dad of which infant

from behavior, but you know, it can go wrong.

We can have assumptions that can be quite different from what’s actually

going on... There might be, um,

some sneaky mating on the side that we haven’t seen.

Anna’s great poo collection will eventually give them

definitive answers to those nagging paternity questions.

Anna has recruited Scottish primatologist Rachel Sassoon

to help her run the Kinda baboon study.

Both rely on the skills of local scout Marley who over the past five years

has developed superhuman abilities to identify each baboon on sight.

When I first started, it was Marley that told me all the individuals.

Who was who and what to look out for.

I see what others don’t see.

Baboons, they are like humans.

They have markings,

others have big eyes, others have round ears.

There are a lot of things to identify baboons.

They are totally different from each other.

NARRATOR: Marley and fellow field researcher Kennedy

are well-known locally for their work on the project.

We call, Marley and Kennedy, kolwe

is "baboon" in Bemba.

And that’s what they call Marley and Kennedy.

Marley also says to me, and he’s said it many times,

"One day I will learn baboon and then I will know what they are saying to each other."

NARRATOR: Every day the team spends dawn till dusk with the troop

as they feed, groom and play.

They know these baboons like friends.

But there are some new faces to get acquainted with.

It’s September, the peak of the birthing season for Kinda baboons.

Even Kinda babies are different, many are born

with a bright white natal coat.

They’re black in other baboon species.

Their white hair is very conspicuous which Anna believes

makes them irresistible to other baboons.

It’s an adaptation thought to elicit more cuddles.

Eminem, one of this year’s newborns, is now three weeks old.

His mom, Ella, sits with another female.

Baboon troops have a hierarchy.

Ella and this female are both in the middle.

Kinda baboons will often let others of similar ranks play with their babies.

Young female Rihanna, on the right, is keen to join in.

But she ranks much lower than Ella and her friend, and is not welcome

Kinda society avoids violent confrontation,

but they still have a strict pecking order.

The snub is subtle but distinct.

By observing these understated interactions the team

is beginning to unlock the baboons’ secret lives.

Hierarchy is everything.

Females born in to the troop remain for their whole lives.

They receive their rank at birth and it never changes.

But males move between troops and can improve their social status.

This is Kennedy. He’s our lowest-ranking male, mating male,

and he’s here sitting in the shade,

quite apart from the rest of the group,

but still, he can see what’s going on.

Er, it gives him a chance to...

Be with the group but he’s not quite completely accepted in yet.

NARRATOR: Newcomers like Kennedy

start at the bottom of the ladder.

Males come from other groups when immature.

And then they join groups where they’re not related to any of the females.

We have no idea what group he came from. He just showed up one day.

In Kinda society males need patience.

It could take months for Kennedy to be fully

accepted into the troop.

(CHITTERING)

For now, as a low ranker, and without friends or females,

Kennedy must groom himself.

It’s getting late in the day.

Sunset is only an hour away

and the baboons are starting to think about finding a safe place to spend the night.

This acacia is not an ideal roost tree.

The small leaves offer little cover

and leave anything in the branches exposed.

But it does have one advantage.

Acacia trees have sweet sap, a bit like maple syrup.

By biting the bark, the baboons get a nutritious snack before bedtime.

The acacia is next door to a large ebony tree with dense cover,

much safer for spending the night.

But this is the time leopards begin to hunt.

Dropping to the ground leaves them vulnerable to attack

so the baboons take a shortcut.

Mum, Ella, must get baby Eminem safely across the gap. He holds on tight.

Simon watches as the rest of troop cross.

Anna’s research has shown that of all baboon species,

Kindas are the most at home in the trees.

(CHITTERING)

It’s another trait that sets them apart from their cousins.

But some have spent too long drinking acacia sap.

ANNA: They were late to come into their roosts.

So it’s dark now and they can’t see one another.

Their vision is much like ours and making the jump when you can’t see

is a whole different ball game.

ANNA: The sound we’re hearing, it’s Fleet.

He’s too scared to jump without Freda, his mom.

Mom Freda has already crossed.

Juvenile Fleet now has to make the jump in the dark,

without his mom’s guidance.

ANNA: This is quite stressful to watch.

(FLEET SCREECHES)

He’s made it.

NARRATOR: Next morning the team’s at the roost site before dawn.

Kasanka can get cold at this time of year.

It’s only 46 degrees when the baboons wake up.

Kinda have longer hair than their yellow baboon cousins.

But they also have another way of getting warmed up for the day ahead.

(MARLEY SPEAKING)

Play not only helps them to warm up but builds their important social bonds.

Seeing who plays with whom is another clue to Kinda baboon cohesiveness.

(CHITTERING PLAYFULLY)

Once they’re warmed up the troop is soon off foraging.

As the team tries to catch up, they’re in for a shock.

For some, baboons represent not family but food.

Kasanka is surrounded by villages.

So people, they come here to hunt.

To hunt baboons with the dogs.

Sometimes baboons are being caught in wire snares.

They were eating eggs, but it’s not hot at all.

(MARLEY SPEAKING)

ANNA: OK.

ANNA: Any other signs? Should we check for some snares?

Marley finds a sinister sign that confirms this is a poacher’s camp.

The puku skull has been left as a marker to help poachers

find their way back to their camp.

Papa inform. Papa inform.

We have come across a new campsite for poachers, over.

Marley and Kennedy are armed, and as well as studying the baboons,

they are here to help protect them.

Had some really hard experiences with, you know,

a male that we had... I had in the beginning disappeared, and um...

He was poached and it was very, very distressing.

Very upsetting.

We all find that quite hard.

With the poaching camp reported to the National Park authorities,

the team can continue its search for the troop.

They don’t have to go far.

Thankfully the whole family is accounted for.

What the baboons seemed to have done yesterday,

is moved out of their core range, which is a much safer area for them.

In the woodland we’re in today

there’s always a lot of poaching activity.

It’s the height of the dry season in central Zambia,

the baboons’ toughest time of year.

Food is scarce and the troop is forced to expand its range to gather enough to eat.

That can take them closer to villages. Closer to danger.

ANNA: I find it extremely frustrating

that the poachers are here and the baboons have to come here.

It’s such an unsafe area but, you know, they have to risk it to continue to feed.

For now Simon, Madonna and the rest of the troop seem safe

but the team will be on red-alert.

The large grass plains that border Kasanka’s woodlands are dotted with oases of trees

filled with nutritious seed pods.

They’re a good protein source at this time of year,

but first, the baboons have to get to them.

Keeping everyone in sight is important.

Baboons’ close-set eyes give them good binocular vision,

perfect for seeing each other from a distance.

But in the long grass it’s not so easy when you’re only two feet tall.

The Kinda have a strategy to cope.

It might look amusing but this spy-hopping behavior

helps them stay safe.

Getting separated from the troop is bad news and jumping like this is a great way

to keep an eye on everyone.

Safely across, Simon and the rest of the troop enjoy a feast.

The pods are as tough as old leather.

But with their huge canine teeth and powerful jaws

the troop can get through hundreds in a day.

Just like hamsters, Kinda baboons can store food inside cheek pouches

which hold as much as their stomachs.

The Kinda supersize their takeout meals whenever they get the chance.

As the day heats up feeding gives way to grooming.

It’s a good way to remove parasites and keep fur clean,

but grooming also plays a far more important role.

It’s one of the key ways baboons maintain hierarchy and grow new friendships.

Being allowed to groom someone of a higher social status is quite an honor.

Simon is only interested in grooming one troop member...

Madonna. But she’s keeping him at arm’s length.

She’s coming into season.

ANNA: Her swelling is... Is much larger.

He’s having to stay very close.

He needs to make sure other males

don’t make any unwanted advances.

It’s very stressful for the male when a female’s swelling

because he has to always move when she moves.

Now Madonna’s gotten up so Simon has to get up too and follow her.

It takes a lot of energy. Get less time to feed.

Simon’s behavior is subtle, but with thousands of hours of

observations under her belt, Anna can read his most nuanced body language.

His proximity to Madonna is a signal to all the other males in the troop

that Madonna is earmarked for him.

Spending so much time with this peaceful group of primates

in their wilderness home can be idyllic.

But sometimes they’re reminded of the harsh realities of the wild.

Smelling something that’s dead or something that’s rotting, like rotting flesh, um...

Ugh.

(COUGHS)

Oh, no! Oh, goodness.

NARRATOR: It’s a rare type of antelope.

Marley, is it natural?

Is there a snare?

You think it was shot?

Could it have been from... How many days old?

Should be two to three days.

Same as the poaching camp we found today.

MARLEY: I think so, yeah. (ANNA SCOFFS)

It seems the sitatunga was only wounded

by the poacher’s bullet and so escaped the cooking pot.

But its injuries were too severe.

It’s so sad. They’re such beautiful animals.

And just, sometimes we catch them here at the edge of the swamp.

I had such a close encounter once when I was with the baboons.

MARLEY: Stupid poachers.

It’s a stark reminder of the dangers all wild animals face here.

ANNA: We’ll go back to radio, yeah? OK.

This is... Yeah, exactly the reality of poaching.

Sometimes it feels like a war we’ll never win.

This is part of the reason why we do what we do.

Um... But.

When they succeed,

it can feel really disheartening.

The next day, Marley and Kennedy follow the troop to the edge of a swamp.

This marshland full of papyrus plants is the only water source left

for the baboons during the dry season.

Juicy shoots are an easy snack,

and with a little more effort there are also nutritious bulbs in the ground.

Simon is still keeping a watchful eye on Madonna.

Her swelling is even more pronounced and she’s almost ready to mate.

Simon follows her into the trees, but it seems Madonna has eyes

for a new man...

Kennedy, the low-ranking male, who has recently joined the troop.

Madonna, it seems, is quite the tease.

She sits above Kennedy to give him a good view of her swelling.

(MARLEY SPEAKING)

Kennedy knows the rules. Madonna is Simon’s female.

But the prospect of mating with a stranger is attractive to Madonna.

(MARLEY SPEAKING)

She instinctively knows that it will mix up the gene pool and is a good way

to ensure a strong and healthy offspring.

(MARLEY SPEAKING)

Kennedy is stuck in an awkward love triangle.

NARRATOR: Moving towards his rival, making Kennedy back off,

is Simon’s way of telling him, "Don’t get any ideas."

In other baboon species this would be an aggressive display of dominance.

Teeth would be bared and fur would fly.

But among kindly Kindas, the interaction is much more polite.

Madonna’s flirting goes on.

Simon gently shoos off Kennedy for a second time.

(CHITTERING)

Madonna is proving to be high maintenance.

But her priority is to secure the best dad for her next baby.

This season there have been seven new additions to the troop.

Each baby inherits its mother’s rank...

But it takes a while to work out your place in the world.

Older youngsters play to socialize and learn the skills needed

for baboon life.

At only nine months old, they are already accomplished acrobats.

New babies like to play with these older youngsters to learn the tricks of the trade.

(CHITTERING)

But it’s not always easy.

They’re only four weeks old but already Eminem and Israel are beginning to strike out

on their own.

Their mothers Ella and Indigo are now giving them more freedom to explore.

Israel is the more cautious of the two and hangs back,

but Eminem is getting bolder by the hour...

(CHITTERING)

He’s 20 feet up and still climbing.

His little hands and feet aren’t used to gripping branches so tightly

for so long.

Eminem hits the ground.

His mom’s rapid reaction shows it’s serious.

It’s a dry time.

So where he landed, it’s very hard.

An infant at that age... I’ve never seen that.

NARRATOR: Shaken, the whole troop vanishes into the thickets.

Unable to pick up their trail, Anna and Marley will have an anxious wait till morning

to find out if Eminem is OK.

As soon as it’s light they’re back out searching for baby Eminem.

ANNA: Oh, there. They’re coming out.

NARRATOR: The troop hasn’t moved far this morning,

which could be a sign that something’s wrong.

ANNA: I want to see Eminem.

With so many baboons on the road, it’s hard to see who’s who.

ANNA: Oh, yeah? Oh, thank goodness.

(ANNA CHUCKLES)

He’s fine. He’s bouncing around. Playing with other infants.

I thought Ella might be a bit nervous after the fall yesterday, but...

They seem OK.

Baby baboons are resilient but there’s a lot to learn.

Hopefully Eminem’s fall has knocked some sense into him.

Crisis over, normal service resumes and Anna and Marley start to analyze

who’s socializing with whom.

ANNA: We’ve got Tina. MARLEY: Mmm-hmm, yeah.

ANNA: That’s awesome.

ANNA: OK.

Kinda baboons are an easygoing lot but they do occasionally get fired up.

(SQUAWKING)

These calls only mean one thing...

Predator.

It’s the babies’ cue to scurry straight back to mom.

With a wingspan of over eight feet and talons as big as man’s hand,

the martial eagle is a Kinda killer.

ANNA: All the babies are back with their moms, that’s for sure.

MARLEY: Yeah. ANNA: The alarm call worked.

NARRATOR: Snuggled up against their moms’ pale tummies,

the babies’ conspicuous white fur turns into camouflage.

This drill has been another lesson for Eminem

and the rest of the youngsters.

Listen to the troop and trust your elders. It could save your life.

Further along the road Rachel waits patiently.

We’ve got Rihanna here, she’s eating a monkey orange.

And this is Guns just here. He approached her.

Very friendly, these two. I think that they...

Could even be cousins. Maybe their mothers were sisters.

But what has actually happened is that Iggy, who was here earlier,

he’s the same age as these two.

He actually... He’s pooed, and I want to collect it,

so I’m waiting for these two to move so I can collect it.

Because if I go towards them, I will displace them,

and that behavior is unnatural. It’s not natural.

The whole point of our research is to observe them and try and not disturb them

as much as possible.

Rihanna’s moved but he’s just right in front of Guns in the road.

(CHUCKLES) When he moves, I can go and get it.

Until then, I cannot.

At long last...

It’s just here.

So we take the fecal matter from the outside.

That’s about all you need.

I always get very excited by poo.

It’s another important sample for the collection.

The team settles back into the rhythm at Kinda camp.

Up at dawn and spending the day moving gently through the bush following the troop.

Anna is still shadowing Simon and Madonna.

Interloper Kennedy is nowhere to be seen.

Madonna seems to have chosen familiarity over the exotic charms of a stranger,

but the course of true love never did run smooth.

Madonna’s younger brother, two-and-a-half-year-old Mitch, sits close by.

And when Simon decides the time is right...

(SCREAMING)

Mitch screams in distress.

It’s off-putting to say the least.

This is very unusual in the normally docile Kinda baboons,

and not something the team has seen before.

(SCREECHING LOUDLY)

Little Mitch is too young to be in competition with Simon,

so it’s not an aggressive show of dominance.

It seems he’s mistaken Simon’s amorous advances for an attack.

Mitch is being protective of his older sister.

This is new behavior not recorded in Kinda baboons before.

It’s an exciting discovery for the team.

But increasingly frustrating for Simon.

Strangers are in the park.

Fire spreads fast in the tinder-dry grasslands.

But these fire-starters are no threat.

They’re paid specialists... Using fire as a tool to protect wildlife.

It’s actually very beneficial to the baboons.

It hasn’t rained for several months.

It’s hot, there’s not a lot of food. They’re having to dig, um,

use a lot of energy everyday just to get enough food.

After the fire comes across within, you know, a few days

flowers blossom, fresh grass roots come up.

In addition to stimulating new plant growth,

controlled burning is also a way of keeping a step ahead of the poachers.

ANNA: If it’s not burned now, then a poacher can light a fire later in the dry season

and it would just destroy all of the wildlife here in the park.

Anna and her team have reached a milestone in their research.

This is the 500th fecal sample they’ve collected

since the project began six years ago.

Thousands of hours of patient collecting are building a treasure trove

of baboon genetics.

We really opened a whole different understanding of what is going on

that we can’t answer without the genetics. They’re key.

It’s going to be absolutely illuminating.

Baboons live a long time, up to 30 years,

and Anna wants her work here to be a long-term study.

This is just the beginning.

Simon and Madonna have finally found some time together away from the troop.

She’s accepted his advances and allows him to groom her.

It’s strong confirmation of their continuing relationship.

Adult males and females are having

these very strong bonds lasting over several years.

The males are initiating and maintaining these relationships.

At last the time is right for Simon.

There’s no younger sibling around to interrupt,

and Madonna is finally ready to mate.

Madonna grooms Simon. It’s a sure sign of the bond they’ve now formed.

By observing interactions like this Anna and her team have built up

an amazing understanding of the complexities of these baboons’ lives.

They seem to stick with the same females

for multiple years and multiple births,

and that’s quite, quite different from other baboons.

Madonna has made a good choice. Simon is a good father,

proven to give time to his families.

This hands-on approach to fatherhood is fundamental to Kinda baboon society.

Male baboons, they protect their family.

Makes sure his offsprings are safe.

How they grow up their babies...

The way they stay with families.

How they interact with other members. It’s good.

It’s quite similar like humans.

NARRATOR: These amiable baboons stand apart from the rest.

Long-lasting relationships, devoted fathers,

and a peaceful way of life all help make Kinda baboons who they are.