Some Primates’ Sheltered Lives: Baboons, chimps enter the realm of cave
By Bruce Bower
Many anthropologists assume that until our evolutionary ancestors learned to control fire to keep predators at bay, primates avoided caves. Two separate studies in Africa now indicate that some groups of baboons and chimpanzees regularly enter caves, primarily to escape extreme cold and heat.
In one investigation, psychologist S. Peter Henzi of the University of Central Lancashire in Preston, England, and his coworkers tracked a baboon troop’s forays into an underground limestone cave in South Africa.