I watched a nature documentary on PBS. One segment covered baboons which appeared to be living in a garbage dump. Apparently, they kidnap the puppies of feral dogs and raise them as pets.
I’m curious as to how the baboons feed the puppies? Is the diet of a baboon similar enough to a puppy’s diet that the puppy wouldn’t starve?
A dog would probably prefer a bit more meat than a baboon routinely eats, but dogs can do perfectly well on vegetarian diets, and baboons do eat some meat. And the particular plants which baboons eat are probably very similar to what humans eat: They wouldn’t be grazing on grass, or anything like that. Given how enthusiastic dogs can get about “people food”, I imagine they’d do just as well on “baboon food”.
Not to mention that the diet of either baboons or dogs living “in a garbage dump” is probably not ideal for either, anyway…
The other thing is that if these monkeys are scavenging on a garbage dump they will be eating pretty much exactly what the stray dogs will be eating anyway: people scraps. Maybe not an ideal diet, but no difefrentot what the dogs would be eating anyway.
I see you posted this some time ago. Do you know what programme documentary or DVD it was on? I have seen a clip that has a National geographic logo on it but with a spanish commentary and I dont understand spanish. I have tried to get some response from NAt geo with zero response. I believe I know where it was shot and under what circumstances. I have been trying to interest wildlife authorities in the area to take more interest in studying the dogs but they are seen as “stray” etc. I was honored to have 3 dogs of the type walk into my life some years ago. They are of the type now registered as Canaans though I suppose as they live free and are not registered can not truly be called Canaans. Personally I do not believe they are raised by the baboons nor adopted by them but I do think it needes to be studied in an unbiased way ie not sensationalised in order to sell the story. There are other similar dumps in the country where dogs and baboons intermingle freely. This happens at waterholes in Africa where a number of non predatory species tolerate each other. The baboons in the shown video can mix in groups of as many as a thousand but break up and move off in smaller groups to safe sleeping areas on top of rocky outcrops. I have never seen the dogs go with them or puppies kept with them for any length of time. So the question of what they are fed by the baboons does not come up. I believe in the video if we had seen the full conclusion we would have seen the puppies mother eventually recover the pup. Nonetheless it needs to be properly studied without pre drawn conclusions. I have a video on youtube of baboons moving through an area where dogs were resting and the dogs are wary of them and keep a safe distance but neither is too concerened by the others presence.
Duncan