High up in the Ethiopian mountains lives the Gelada. It lives nowhere else and although its closest living relative is the baboon, with its hairless face and short muzzle the gelada looks more like a chimpanzee. Isolated in these remote Ethiopian Highlands (often called
The Roof of Africa) this primate has developed a way of existence (one might call it a culture) all of its own.
To begin with the gelada is a graminivore which means that it only eats grass. Fortunately, the highlands in which they live are cooler and a lot less arid than many parts of Ethiopia and they rarely experience any kind of food shortage. They will also become granivorous when the grass is in seed. In fact, they actively prefer the seed to the grass – it is probably a welcome change.
