Jojo

Jojo is an adult female baboon from my troop. She was found a couple years ago being chained to a tree in someone’s backyard. Unfortunately, not an unusual story for baboons here in Africa. You can watch her rescue and the beginning of her rehabilitation story here:

 Jojo's Story

Jojo was the lowest-ranked baboon in the troop. She’s very sweet but often spent time by herself. When we put the baboons into their release enclosure for a few days prior to the release in order for them to slowly get acclimated to their new surroundings, Jojo unfortunately became the target of some aggression stemming from the stress of a new environment. Her injuries prevented her from being released and she was taken back to the Centre for some treatment and recuperation time. After a few weeks there, she seemed back to her old self and we traveled to Lilongwe to pick her up.

The troop was still hanging around the release enclosure area and using trees in the vicinity as their sleeping site, so it was an ideal time to reintroduce her to the troop. Luckily, everything went very smoothly. She spent a day and a half in the enclosure again, to allow the troop time to say hello and for her to again acclimate to her surroundings. Everyone greeted each other happily, which was a delight to see. There was lots of grunting and lipsmacks and grooming.

When we opened the enclosure she ran right out and up a nearby tree. She seemed a little apprehensive at first about where she was, just as the other baboons had on their first day. She quickly joined her friends and has been living her free life in the bush ever since! In the following few weeks, she has done remarkable well. She doesn’t pay us, the research team, any attention, she keeps up with the rest of the troop, and she eats plenty of the good natural foods around. She gets particularly excited when finding seed pods that grown near the ground. She is already gained weight and body condition and is looking as healthy as ever. 

Initially, we weren’t sure the whole process was going to work. Was the troop going to accept her again? Were they going to be aggressive towards her? Was she not going to want to join her troop again? Would she not be able to keep up with the others? But Jojo has absolutely excelled in all areas. It has been a joy to be able to give this kind baboon yet another chance at being free. To me, it even seems like that the rest of the baboons were waiting for her to return. As soon as she did they became more vocal throughout the day, and they began to explore their home range further. The very next day after Jojo's release the troop began to expand their foraging areas and started sleeping at different sleeping sites.