Born during a drought: Bad news for baboons

NSF | APRIL 5, 2015

After the plains of southern Kenya experienced a severe drought in 2009 that took a terrible toll on wildlife, researchers looked at how 50 wild baboons coped with the drought, and whether the conditions they faced in infancy played a role.

Adolescent female baboon grooming her mother. Credit: Susan Alberts/NSF

The grasslands the animals depend on for food dried up and watering holes disappeared, leaving many animals starving or weak from hunger.

"We lost 98 percent of the wildebeest population, 75 percent of the zebra population and 30 percent of the elephant population," said Susan Alberts, a biologist at Duke University. "It was impossible to go anywhere without smelling death."

Most baboons made it, but the drought left them underweight and many females stopped ovulating.

The researchers compared two groups of females--one group born during low rainfall years, the other born during normal rainfall years.

All females in the study were adults by time of the 2009 drought, but those born in lean times fared worse in 2009 than those born in times of plenty, the researchers found.

This study demonstrates lifetime fertility reductions for baboons born during stressful conditions or to low-ranking mothers. The findings also help explain why people who are malnourished in early childhood go on to have higher rates of obesity, diabetes and heart disease as adults.

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