News Animals

When baboons travel, majority rules

Monkeys use group decision making to deal with troop splits, GPS data suggest

Baboons in a troop

STAYING TOGETHER  Baboons in this troop, tracked with GPS collars, resolved splits in group travel by following collective rules that bypassed socially dominant monkeys.

Rob Nelson

By Bruce Bower

- More than 2 years ago

Baboons don’t follow the leader. When a troop of these monkeys splits up and starts moving in two dramatically different directions, animals gravitate toward the more popular choice, a new study finds.