BABOON, properly the designation of the long-muzzled, medium-tailed Egyptian monkey, Papio anubis; in a wider sense applied to all the members of the genus Papio now confined to Africa and Arabia, although in past times extending into India. Baboons are large terrestrial monkeys with short or medium sized tails, and long naked dog like muzzles, in the truncated ex tremity of which are pierced the nostrils. They frequent barren rocky districts in large droves, and are exceedingly fierce and dangerous to approach. They have large cheek-pouches, large naked callosities, often brightly coloured, on the buttocks, and short thick limbs, adapted to walking. Their diet includes everything eatable they can cap ture or kill. The representative of the genus is the yellow baboon (P. cynocephalus), distinguished by its small size and grooved muzzle. It ranges from Abyssinia to the Zambezi. The anubis baboons were tamed by the ancient Egyptians. (See PRIMATES ; CHACMA; DRILL; GELADA and MANDRILL.)