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How to Win Friends and Influence Baboons

Baboon troops. We all know they’re hierarchical. There’s the big brutish alpha male who rules with a hairy iron fist, and then there’s everybody else. Which is what Meg Crofoot thought too, before she used GPS collars to track the movements of a troop of baboons for a whole month. What she and her team learned from this data gave them a whole new understanding of baboon troop dynamics, and, moment to moment, who really has the power.  This episode was reported and produced by Annie McEwen. Support Radiolab by becoming a member today at Radiolab.org/donate.    
Duration
31m
Broadcast on
31 Oct 2020
Audio Format
other

Baboon troops. We all know they’re hierarchical. There’s the big brutish alpha male who rules with a hairy iron fist, and then there’s everybody else. Which is what Meg Crofoot thought too, before she used GPS collars to track the movements of a troop of baboons for a whole month. What she and her team learned from this data gave them a whole new understanding of baboon troop dynamics, and, moment to moment, who really has the power. 

This episode was reported and produced by Annie McEwen.

Support Radiolab by becoming a member today at Radiolab.org/donate.    


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Hey, it's Jad. So an election is happening. I don't know if you heard. And today and in a few days from now we have two quick releases for you that sort of look at the big day from a variety of different angles. And as you might have heard, we also have two new co-hosts here at Radiolab, Lula Miller and lots of Nasser. And they're going to take these two on their own. I will see you hear you talk to you on the other side. Wait, you're listening to Radiolab from WNYC. Join audio. There you go. Hello. Hi. How are you doing? I'm back. Hey, I'm Lutif Nasser. This is Radiolab. And today we've got a story from our producer, Annie McEwen. So you just came back from a vacation. I just came back from paternity leave. And this is really like, I don't know anything about this story. I think you must have pitched this while I was gone. And so this is great. Like this is literally the first thing I'm doing. So it's like, that's nice. I'm really coming at this. I don't know anything. Well, okay, so I guess when I pitched this, I was just, I don't know, just in this, like, I am ready to hear about someone other than humans. I'm just a little overwhelmed with humanity right now. And so this story I have for you today is an animal story. Okay. But of course, except hello. Hi. Hi, Meg. How are you? I'm doing well. How are you, Annie? To talk about animals. I need a human to help me. I'm in my office. The door is closed. To knock, so. So that human is Meg Croft. And I study the behavior of wild animals for a living. She is a director at the Max Planck Institute and a prof at the University of Constance. It is an awesome job. Loves her job. I do. And so the reason I was drawn to hers, because her work with animals, tackles this really

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Baboon troops. We all know they’re hierarchical. There’s the big brutish alpha male who rules with a hairy iron fist, and then there’s everybody else. Which is what Meg Crofoot thought too, before she used GPS collars to track the movements of a troop of baboons for a whole month. What she and her team learned from this data gave them a whole new understanding of baboon troop dynamics, and, moment to moment, who really has the power.  This episode was reported and produced by Annie McEwen. Support Radiolab by becoming a member today at Radiolab.org/donate.