Beleaguered Toronto baboons deal with in-fighting, hormones, external agitations
TORONTO — On a hot Thursday last September, workers at the Toronto Zoo were making a racket as they unloaded barriers to set up a finish line for the Oasis ZooRun, a race that sees thousands of participants make their way past animal exhibits at the sprawling facility.
The noise was agitating the beleaguered baboon troop nearby, riling up already high-strung members of the group.
It took nearly 45 minutes that night for the olive baboons to leave the outdoor area of their exhibit and mosey into the house where they sleep, according to medical records obtained by The Canadian Press. It was the same story the following night, with staff citing the race set-up and hot weather as potential reasons for the uneasy behaviour, documents show.
The tensions around the time of the race were just one example of the issues the zoo has to deal with when it comes to managing the baboon group plagued by vicious in-fighting for the past three years.