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Leucistic baboons of the Luangwa Valley.16/05/2009 12:40:49
Another reader, Steve Tolan, of the Chipembele Wildlife Education Centre (www.chipembele.org) has also seen some leucistic baboons inthe Luangwa Valley. There does seem to be a "leucistic hotspot" in the Luangwa, as we have had several reports of different animals from the beautiful part of the world.
Steve Tolan adds There is a race of smaller baboons in Zambia called 'Kinda', and 100% of their babies are white, whereas only a very small amount of Yellow Baboons of the Luangwa Valley itself have white babies, and these normally revert to the colour of the adults as they grow. No leucistic hotspot Baby baboon displaying leucism in the Luangwa Valley. Copyright Steve Tolan. 
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Comment on the location and tell us what you saw there
Professor Clifford Jolly from New York University is a highly respected palaeoanthropologist and has done much recent work on baboons in the Luangwa Valley and elsewhere in Zambia, collecting droppings and analysing their DNA to discover their genetic links.
He says:-
I think that some caution is in order before
the "leucistic hotspot" notion gets too established! There seem to be several different things going on here.
First, there are "dilute" (i.e. lightly pigmented, but not white) vertebrates in S. Luangwa (starlings, lions, etc). But such individuals occur sporadically everywhere, and actual quantitative information is needed to show that there are more of them in S. Luangwa than elsewhere.
Second, there are "white baby" baboons, that have a white (not "dilute") natal coat but normal adult coloration. These are not especially common in S. Luangwa (~ 10%), but in Kinda baboons (N part of Kafue NP) almost 100% of babies are white, and turn to normal adult coloration. We think the white babies in SLNP are evidence of gene flow from Kindas to the west. (There is obviously no evidence that "all white babies die", as one local SLNP legend has it!).
Third, and most interesting, there is the very strange "white adult baboon" phenomenon -- perhaps, as you say, retention of a white natal coat -- which DOES seem to be a developmental anomaly and localized in this general area (SE Zambia, S. Malawi). It may well have something to do with the fact that, as we know from the genetics, it's a multiple hybridization zone...
As always, "more work is needed"!
Posted by: Powell Ettinger | 18 May 2009 14:30:15