These magnificent creatures – native Hamadryas Baboons – were photographed when we pulled our car off to the side of the road while we driving from Jeddah north through the rocky mountainous terrain to Madinah. All in all, there were a couple of dozen wild baboons in each of the two family groups that we spotted along the way. Interestingly enough, I have learned that these baboon families consist of one male or father and several female wives and their offspring – interesting to me because of the similar Islamic belief which permits Muslim men up to four wives! The wild baboon numbers have been steadily increasing over the past few decades since their natural predators like leopards and striped hyenas have been hunted out of the picture, allowing the baboon natives to reproduce and flourish. Earlier this year there were reports of baboons attacking residents and farms in several areas close to their habitat as they desperately searched for food and water due to severe drought.
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interesting post about the baboons. enjoyed reading.
thanks for sharing with us 🙂
This is amazing to me. When I visited Costa Rica, I was amazed at the colorful birds and some small monkeys that I’d see every now and then, but wild baboons is something I would never expect. Great photos.
Ultimately Man becomes the victims of his own deeds!
It’s so interesting all about baboons. In Spain, in Gibraltar, there is a legend about the baboon. When they disappear from the rock, Gibraltar will cease to be English.
Hi to Everyone! Glad you enjoyed my baboon photos. I did stay in the car and the windows were rolled up when I took the photos. I wish I could have gotten better/more photos but I wasn’t in a prime position for photographing them and it was difficult manuevering from inside the car. Thanks to all for stopping by.
Hi Susie,
Very nice they are baboons oonly be carefull not to make them angry nor to irritate them, but when you stay away (leave them alone) its OK, Thanks for showing,
Here/Holland its Frost allover, http://www.joannwalraven.blogspot.com
Greetings from JoAnn
Nice to see them:)
Cool creatures. So typical of their population to increase with the extermination of predators and reduced habitat. Nice MWT.
Intersting story, I don’t thinks these Baboons are lovely animals. Enjoyed a lot of your pictures from a for my unknown part of the world.
A unique and interesting world! I remember being afraid of baboons when I was growing up in South Africa. They seemed much bigger than yours, but perhaps that is because I was smaller.
Don’t have any of those in My world.. thanks for sharing..
Great post and very interesting! I guess — for whatever reason I never thought of them being in Saudi Arabia! See, you can learn something everyday! Thanks for sharing!
Very interesting post, but I am glad you did not get out of the car as they can be quite dangerous and unpredictable.
Quite the wild and exciting encounter. The wildest creatures I see here are mountain lions.
Hello Susie,
I didn’t know there were baboons in the Arabic peninsula and it’s interesting indeed to learn that the male baboons are polygamous too … Well … I wish you more pleasant days in Saudia Arabia and would like to congratulate you once again because of your courage to live in such a different culture.
Friendly greetings from Istanbul/Turkey,
Susie: I get a deer and you get Baboons, you are lucky. Those are beautiful creatures but it is too bad the balance of nature was destroyed.
They really do look very cheeky. Amazing how even our animals are so vastly different around the world.
They are lovely animals. I wonder what they think of motor vehicles and humans with their single spouses!