Benji hated baboons. For some reason, he'd just get a hint that they were around and he'd go crazy. If they were chattering in trees around him?they often came in to our garden looking for wild fruit? he would go almost demented, chasing from tree to tree, while the older baboons nonchalantly gazed at him and the youngsters screamed and taunted him from above. He would eventually almost run himself into the ground and I'd have to lock him inside the house until then baboons left town.

Now, next to lions, baboons have the longest canine teeth of all the mammals in Africa . Male baboons are fearsome defenders of the troop from predators. Leopards seldom attempt to attack a baboon that is part of a troop. Stragglers, the weak and lame. left behind, when the troop moved on, were the only real chances a leopard had of snacking on a baboon. Even lions were wary about attacking baboons and only lion numbers, or the presence of a big male in the pride, would allow them to be their normal nonchalant selves when near baboons.