Baboon (1987) by David Jones

Author:David Jones
Format: epub
Published: 1987-07-30T16:00:00+00:00

Battle of the bobcat

The next morning, the troop acted as if nothing had happened. Gerry had expected some kind of mood change. With Lothar, the troop’s top bully removed, Gerry had thought maybe everyone would just get along. Or at least leave each other alone.

But Gerry noticed little difference in the baboons’ behaviour. There were the usual squabbles. A number of males were pestering Lucinda, a female who had become receptive to mating. Hector was among them, doing his best, but she seemed to have no interest in entertaining a male of his low rank.

Gerry felt more relaxed himself without having to worry about where Lothar was and whether he might be doing something to provoke him.

Zeus led the troop that day, but his foraging seemed somewhat aimless. The few seed pods they found in the morning were not enough to satisfy anyone. They moved across the open veldt, the kind of travel that made everyone nervous. Gerry was annoyed, because he doubted that whatever riches they came across would be worth the risk.

But within half an hour they came to a termite mound. The troop would have simply passed by, but Sphinx crouched in front of the tower and began one of his staring bouts. I wonder who will blink first, thought Gerry, suddenly weary of the game. The baboon or the car-sized lump of congealed termite spittle? Still, it never hurt, he had learned, to pay attention to whatever Sphinx was paying attention to, and he paused to look at the mound. After a moment, Hector walked over and worked at tearing it open. Gerry tried to help him but the weird grey spires felt as strong as concrete to his hands.

Then Gerry had an idea, and swung at it with his cudgel. He knocked off a chunk of the tower, exposing the dank interior. Soldiers swarmed out of the wreckage to defend the colony with their enormous jaws, and the troop gathered around to feast.

The trick, as Gerry learned from watching the others, was to work quickly: get them into your mouth and crush them between your molars before they could bite you too many times with their pincers. Gerry was also using a stem of grass, which he fed into the writhing mass of bodies. On the way to his mouth, the angry insects concentrated their attack on the stem. He used his teeth to strip them off.

Back in Croydon, he’d seen a chimpanzee use a similar trick on a nature documentary. Around him, the others were still using their hands. Obviously not getting the Discovery Channel, thought Gerry.

It didn’t take long for the workers to seal up their nest with something they vomited from their tiny mouths, but it took only a few seconds for Gerry to open it again with his club. The troop fed until they were satisfied – or at least until their mouths were too sore from bites to eat any more. One by one, they moved off in search of a more agreeable meal.

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