Two little baboons - level 3
Two baby baboons hitch a ride on their parents’ backs as they soak up the sun in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park Zoo, showing themselves off to the public for the first time. The youngsters, both male Hamadryas baboons, were born at the zoo just weeks apart on August 9th and September 26th. They have two different mothers, Rebecca and Kaia, who are both ten years old. Bole, a twenty one year old male is the father of both the youngsters. Hamadryas baboons are large ground-dwelling primates native to northeastern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. The highly social animals are found in rocky areas and cliffs. They spend most of their time grooming each other, a behavior that maintains social bonds within the troop. Difficult words: hitch (get a free ride), soak up (enjoy), ground-dwelling (living mainly on the ground), peninsula (land which is almost an island), groom (brush and clean), troop (group).