Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
There are also widespread claims of forced resettlements in order to make room for the
sugarcane plantations and repeated reports of human-rights violations by the Ethiopian
army against locals who oppose the establishment of these farms.
THE BLEEDING HEART BABOON
The gelada baboon
(Theropithecus gelada),
is one of Ethiopia's most fascinating endemic mammals. In fact not a
baboon at all, it makes up its own genus of monkey and so more correctly should be called the gelada monkey.
Of all the nonhuman primates, it's by far the most dexterous. It also lives in the largest social groups (up to 800
have been recorded), and is the only primate that feeds on grass and has its 'mating skin' on its chest and not on
its bottom - a convenient adaptation, given that it spends most of its time sitting!
The gelada also has the most complex system of communication of any nonhuman primate and the most soph-
isticated social system: the females decide who's boss, the young males form bachelor groups, and the older males
perform a kind of grandfather role looking after the young.
Although the males sport magnificent leonine manes, their most striking physical feature is the bare patch of
skin on their chest. This has given rise to their other popular name: the 'bleeding heart baboon'. The colour of the
patch indicates the sexual condition of not just the male (his virility), but also his female harem (their fertility).
Although its population is shrinking, the gelada monkey population is the healthiest of Ethiopia's endemic
mammals. Its current population is thought to number between 40,000 and 50,000.
Resented for its alleged damage to crops and pasture, it has become the scapegoat for more sinister goings-on,
too. According to local police reports, gelada monkeys are responsible for local thefts, burglaries, rapes and even
murders - in one case bursting into a house to drag an adult man 1.5km before shoving him off a cliff face. If in
doubt, it seems, blame the bleeding heart baboon.
International Rivers calls Gibe III 'the most destructive dam under construction in
Africa' and Survival International claims that it will be a 'disaster of cataclysmic propor-
tions for the tribes of the Omo valley'. The problems are not just limited to Ethiopia. Over
the border in Kenya, Lake Turkana lies in an area of extreme aridity and thousands of
Kenyans living in the vicinity of the lake are reliant on the lake for their crops, to water
their livestock and generally to maintain their tribal lifestyles. Opponents of the dam say
that water levels in the lake will drop by between 2m and 10m and that salinity will in-
crease to such an extent that the waters will become undrinkable for people and livestock.
