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Asked by to Catherine, James on 19 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
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Catherine Offord answered on 19 Jun 2014:
There are a couple of reasons, we think.
One is that the colour of the female bum tells a male baboon how fertile they are, and attracts their attention. The female changes colour slightly when they are ready to reproduce and this acts as a sign to male baboons.
Another, probably less important, reason is that it is presented as a signal of ‘submission’ . In other words, when one baboon recognizes that another baboon is stronger or more aggressive, it will turn around and show its bum to the stronger baboon. We might think of this as being rather rude, but in baboons it’s a universal way of saying ‘I don’t present a threat! Please leave me alone!’
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James Bell answered on 19 Jun 2014:
Females get a swollen red bum when they are ready to mate (meaning they are fertile) and their bum tells the males in the group that they are ready.
Male baboons often control a harem of females. This means the strongest or most dominant male gets the rights to mate with lots of different females and he stops them from being mated with by other males while they are around the time that they would normally mate
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