Baboon's class struggle

Herd animals, the status of the individual has high and low, there are objective class differences.

For animals, the pecking order is the class order. To know who is the dominant upper class, who is the dominant lower class, and who is the middle class in a group of animals, one only needs to observe their feeding situation to know at a glance. The dominant upper class is always the first to dominate the fresh food, and then it is the turn of the middle class to enjoy the status of the upper and lower classes, and those lower classes have to eat the leftovers.

There are 18 African baboons in the Yuantong Mountain Zoo, a primate with the head of a dog and the body of a monkey, with a black face and olive green fur, and fierce and aggressive nature.

Baboons also have a strong sense of hierarchy, just like other herd animals. At the head of the group is a male baboon named Anubi, who is tall and strong, with a lion-like mane on his neck; in second place is a male baboon nicknamed Cone, with a particularly long and slender muzzle, shaped like a cone, and with a body almost on a par with Anubi's; below this are several favored females and young baboons: at the bottom of the list is a one-eyed male baboon and an old baboon who is thin and has lost most of the hair on his back These two poor lower-ranking baboons are still ranked, with the one-eyed dragon being slightly more advanced than the light-haired one.

The formation and division of baboons into classes is, of course, not in any way related to their economic status, but is based on their physical strength. The hierarchical order within the group often changes and adjusts under the influence of age, disease, and unexpected changes. In other words, baboons often fight over status issues.

In my way of thinking, the lower-class cyclops and dorsal light would hate Anubis the most, being the lowest in status, the most oppressed, almost always underfed, and often reprimanded and scolded. According to the law where there is oppression, there is resistance, the deeper the oppression, the stronger the resistance, and the relationship between them and the chief Anubi, should be incompatible with the conflict between the enemy and the fire. I think, the greater the class difference, the more tense the relationship will be. One lives in heaven, one lives in hell, the contrast is so strong, it is strange that it does not fight it a world over!

But after a period of careful observation, I found that my perceptions and the facts of what happened in the cage are not similar. One-eyed dragon and back hair light do not seem to have much hatred for the leader Anubi, they do not talk about any tension between them, one party to rule, one party to accept the rule, one party to give orders, one party to obey the implementation, quite normal. At feeding time, when Anubi is eating at the trough with his mouth full of oil, the Cyclops and the Back Light are always huddled in the nooks and crannies of the wigwam, without any expression of pain on their faces, as if it were a matter of course; when they meet Anubi coming towards them, the Cyclops and the Back Light immediately crouch down and hang their heads and tails in a self-conscious and submissive manner, even more, modest and reverent than the other baboons whose status is higher than theirs.

I once saw a cyclops playing with an empty can thrown in by a visitor outside the cage and accidentally kicked it on Anubi's nose, an act of treason. Anubis gave a low growl with a glare, and the cyclops, shaking with fear, fell to the ground, waiting to be beaten. Anubis ran to the Cyclops, and I thought it was going to punch, kick, bite and whip the Cyclops, but to my surprise, it only used its claws to symbolically whip the Cyclops on the buttocks, and that was the end of the punishment.

It has a disdainful look on its face as if to say, this guy's status is too low, I do not need to take it too seriously, there is no need to be common sense with it! And the one-eyed dragon was beaten, not only not annoyed, but with a kind of grateful eyes to see Anubi leave, that flattering attitude seems to say, what a good chief, I offended it, but it forgave me, forgive me.

What shocked me was that the relationship between the one-eyed dragon and the back hairy light, however, was so tense that it was almost like a rivalry between enemies. When the upper- and middle-class baboons have almost finished their food, the Cyclops and the Backlight pounce on the scraps together. At this point, the cyclops tends to run faster while making a threatening "oooooooooooooooo" sound, as if to warn the other side that I am not to be trifled with! The back-furred light doesn't buy it, and returns the glare with a vicious glare, cursing and lunging for the trough. They often fought over a piece of potato skin or half a tomato at the trough. On one occasion, the black-haired light ran to the trough before the one-eyed dragon and happened to have whole lettuce in the scraps, so he grabbed it and shoved it into his mouth. The one-eyed dragon was furious, as if the other party had violated its rights and trampled on its dignity, and rushed forward to twist the back hairy light and bite it desperately. The two sides chased each other in the cage and rolled around, making pandemonium. If not for the intervention of Anubi, drinking them to a truce is likely to cause fatalities. Even in normal times, these two guys meet each other when they are straight tail, extremely unfriendly attitude.

Alas, this is incomprehensible and stupid behavior. If you want to get a bite of the scraps and a bite of the scraps, it's just a matter of eating more scraps and fewer scraps; if you want to fight, it's just a fight between the last and the second-best status. To use an inappropriate analogy, the one-eyed dragon and the back hairy light are two bitter gourds on a bitter vine, you are also bitter and it is also bitter, fighting each other, the bitter situation can not be improved. If they want to hate, they should hate the leader Anubi, who is so high and powerful, and unite to defeat Anubis, so that they can turn over and be liberated.

Unfortunately, they are not aware of this.

Perhaps, it is because their social status is similar, so there are more conflicts of interest. For the back hairy light, to fight with the chief Anubi, that is the eggs against the stone, not self-measurement; more realistic pursuit is to be able to and it half and half of the one-eyed dragon stepped on their feet, their social rank is also considered to rise half a frame, at least you can eat a few more bites of leftovers. For the one-eyed dragon, with its conditions, to be among the upper class is a delusional daydream, the imminent threat is not to let the current status below its back hair light step on its shoulders to climb up, otherwise, it will even eat a few more mouthfuls of scraps of rights to be deprived of.

It's no coincidence that, in contrast to the tension between the Cyclops and the back hairy light, the chief Anubi and the cone are also at loggerheads, with a high frequency of friction. The Cone has a great body, comparable to Anubi's, with strong muscles, powerful limbs, and an imposing mane that makes it difficult for the uninitiated to guess who has a higher status than Anubi. In this group of baboons, the cone is second only to Anubi and, if ranked, is in the upper class.

However, it seems difficult to apply the phrase "pro or con class" to them. Anubis treats the cone far more roughly and badly than other baboons of lower rank. When it comes to eating, it is of course the rule that Anubi should be the first to go to the trough to pick and taste. Sometimes, however, naughty young baboons, greedy females, and hungry males take advantage of Anubi's defencelessness and rush up to grab a tasty meal. Whenever this happens, Anubi lets out a short growl and shows his teeth in a threatening manner, and if the offender backs off, he will not pursue the matter. But if the cone dares to be rude or a little offensive, it will not be tolerated.

On one occasion, Anubi's paws were pounding in the trough and somehow a piece of bean cake was thrown out and fell right at the feet of the cone, which was standing on the side. Anubis was as angry as if he had been exhumed from his ancestral grave, and pounced on the cone, kicking and biting it to death, which fled while resisting, jumping to the top of the hill at one moment, climbing up the cage wall at another, and making pleading sounds with its mouth, but Anubi did not eat this at all, and still pursued it, as if he had to put the cone, which had violated its privilege, to death. The cone of the violation of its privileges to the death and then quickly. The cone was not easy to bully and was forced to fight back. The battle between Anubi and the cone was a close one, with roars and shaking cages, and the mother baboon hiding in the cave of the rockery with her baby in her arms.

The battle lasted for two hours, with the skin on the cone splitting and the nose on the Anubis bruised and swollen, until both sides fell to the ground, exhausted and foaming at the mouth. It's just a small piece of bean cake, is it worth such a big fight? There are still several bean cakes in the trough! Just yesterday, when the old baboon had a cold, Anubi showed compassion by giving a piece of bean cake to Backlight. The same piece of bean cake, today, in the hands of a cone, a brutal fight breaks out, which is puzzling.

If the "social status of similarity, the conflict of interest intensifies" as a law, then this to judge the behavior of Anubi, perhaps it will not be considered to be in the fuss. For Anubi, the lower class, such as back hair light, does not constitute a direct threat to their status, so they are more tolerant, not only to show their compassion and kindness but also will not endanger their own rule, why not do that? But to the cones, it is a different matter, the difference between them is very small, standing next to each other is a situation of equality, definitely a potential crisis of usurpation of leadership, any little disrespect shown by the cones, who said it is not a signal of rebellion? From the cone's point of view, although it and Anubi are the upper class, the gap between the chief and the second in command is very large, the essence is still the relationship between the ruler and the ruled, how to say that the mentality is difficult to balance. We all have one head, and four paws, standing up to the average height, fighting to win or lose, why should I be subordinate to it?

Since the fight, the relationship between Anubi and the cone has become tenser and tenser. Every morning, when Anubi comes out of his den, the first thing he does is go to the cave where Cone is sleeping and wait for Cone to wake up. For it is customary for the baboons to bend their heads and crouch down for the first time each day to let the chief ride them as a sign of tameness. For the baboons, giving themselves a ride is a sign of their willingness to bow down, and being able to ride on the backs of other baboons is the most concentrated expression of the order of subordination.

Anubis is very sloppy with other baboons, as long as the other party squats down and makes a gesture of giving a ride, he symbolically crosses his forearm onto the other party's back, even if he has completed the ritual of Hajj, and lets them pass; but he only picks his nose at the cone, and feels that the body of the cone is not squatting in place, and blames the face of the cone for not being buried tightly in front of his chest, and is not used to seeing the cone roll its eyes at him, and is fussy. Once mounted on the back of the cone, the two hind legs stilted up, the two front paws grabbed the cone's neck hair, the entire body weight are pressed on the cone, tail pumping the cone's buttocks, the head raised high mouth also issued Ou Ou strange clamor, like in the equestrian show.

Anubis does this, drunkenness is not the intention, but through this prank, to lower the prestige of the cone, destroy the cone's self-esteem, open the gap between each other, and the cone's hatred of Anubi also grows day by day.

Once, it pretended to sleep, shrinking in the cave late, so that Anubi waited for half a day. Another time, when Anubi was on its back, it deliberately stepped on a banana peel, squeaky slipped a fall, Anubi was not prepared, was heavily thrown out, head on the wigwam, and forehead hit a big bruise.

This shows that the closer the status of the two animals, the higher the tension in their relationship.

Later, once the cone climbing in the rain on the wigwam, accidentally stepped on a slip from the top of the mountain and fell, fracturing the hind leg, it refused to cooperate honestly with the treatment, after the cast on the kick and move around, and as a result, after healing the injured leg shortened by two centimeters, walking with a limp, not only to damage the image, unsightly but also in the group's status has been reduced by several levels, from the second to the seventh hand The group was reduced from the upper class to the middle class. Strangely enough, Anubi's attitude immediately changed, no longer egged on the cone's behavior, the tension relaxed, and the group also became harmonious and peaceful.

The class gap is magnified, the gap between each other opens up, and the relationship is much better. This is certainly the law of inter-beast relations, and should not be the law of human relations.