Potential Hotspots of Hamadryas Baboon–Human Conflict in Al-Baha Region, Saudi Arabia

In recent decades, conflicts between hamadryas baboons (Papio hamadryas) and the rapidly growing human population in the mountainous areas of Western, Southwestern, and Southern Saudi Arabia have accelerated. This conflict, historically occurring mainly between farmers and baboons, has now moved to...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Diversity (Basel) 2023-10, Vol.15 (11), p.1107
Main Authors: Al-Ghamdi, Ghanem, Alzahrani, Abdulaziz, Al-Ghamdi, Saleh, Alghamdi, Salihah, Al-Ghamdi, Abdullah, Alzahrani, Wael, Zinner, Dietmar
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Baboons
Biodiversity hot spots
Coastal plains
Ecological research
Food
Global positioning systems
GPS
Human beings
Human populations
Human-animal relationships
human-baboon conflict
Influence on nature
Mountain regions
Mountainous areas
Mountains
Papio hamadryas
Parks & recreation areas
Population number
Rabies
Saudi Arabia
Spatial distribution
urban area
Vegetation
Zoonoses
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Summary:In recent decades, conflicts between hamadryas baboons (Papio hamadryas) and the rapidly growing human population in the mountainous areas of Western, Southwestern, and Southern Saudi Arabia have accelerated. This conflict, historically occurring mainly between farmers and baboons, has now moved to the urbanized areas in the baboon range and is mainly caused by the common use of spatial and other resources by baboons and humans. The goal of this study was to describe the spatial distribution of baboon groups and to estimate the population size of baboons in the Al-Baha region. The results indicate that baboons are present in all administrative areas of the Al-Baha region with a concentration along the mountain chain running from northwest to southeast and the western part of the region. As expected, rubbish dumps constitute baboon hotspots due to the large amounts of human-derived food. However, the baboons also travel into towns for foraging. The prevention of baboon accessibility to human-derived food would be an important step to reduce causes of conflicts between humans and baboons.
ISSN:1424-2818
1424-2818
DOI:10.3390/d15111107