Baboons are all about family.  For them it’s mostly mathematics in the great gene race, banding together with those who share the same genes in an effort to perpetuate them ad infinitum, which also means you’re nicer to your sister than you are to your cousin, nicer to your niece than that weird kid down the way.  At least in theory.

For the last several months I have watched Urusi be a major snatch to her older sister, Ubergiji.  Even when Ubergiji gave birth to little Ufaransa, Urusi still had no qualms about displacing (walking up her and forcing her to leave) her older sister any old time she pleased, chasing her off from marginal food sources or really just because.  And because female hierarchies are stacked the way they are, Ubergiji has to put up with it.  In some sadistic twist on favoritism, mothers champion their younger daughters over their older, meaning that the first, in a very biblical sense, ends up being last.  For example, Ubergiji’s mother is Ubena, the queen bee.  First, Ubena gave birth to Uvila.  Next came Ubergiji and Ubena tipped the scales in such a way that when Ubergiji got to be about four years old, she outranked her older sister (i.e. Ubena #1, Ubergiji #2, Uvila #3).  Then Urusi was born and now, being a four-year old with a swelling the size of Russia (her butt is absolutely HUGE right now), she outranks both her older sisters.  And she makes sure they know it.

But when trouble strikes, your younger sister’s last flippant comment or bitchy eyebrow raise is forgotten, because, after all, you are family.  For example, yesterday, Gobosi, a relatively new male to AC troop, decided to light into Urusi and charge after her, canines bared.  Screaming, Urusi took off.  And then suddenly Ubergiji, whom I had been watching lazily eat palm nuts for the better part of an hour, let out a scream of her own and, flanked by Ulaya (another young member of the “U” family) and Uele (a comical addition since he can’t weigh more than 5 or 6 pounds), chased after Gobosi.  Perhaps not expecting such a rebuttal, Gobosi gave up on Urusi and he and Ubergiji had a tense stand off, him standing wide-legged, hair bushed in every direction, panting, while Ubergiji screamed at him, tail erect.  Then she charged him and he ran off for a second or two before seeming to remember that he was three times her size (and that she was burdened with a baby), at which point he turned around and took after her.  Hayat, an older fellow who had been standing idly by, occasionally trying to calm Ubergiji with reassuring grunts, saw Gobosi chasing a poor defenseless woman with a baby, though, and soon joined in the fray, throwing out deep, rapid grunts that say, essentially, “I totally intend to f*** you up now.”  Others joined in and soon Gobosi had run off a safe distance to nurse his ego.  Expecting Urusi to be truly thankful for the intervention of her magnanimous older sister, I was somewhat dismayed to see her walk up to Ubergiji not three minutes later and displace her from under a palm tree.  I guess gratitude isn’t really a baboon thing.