"Pat Loughlin"  wrote
>
> Does anyone have an idea as to why baboons can co-exist with > humans?
> Seems like they occupy almost the same ecological nitch and
> would directly compete with humans for food.  If our species
> wiped out all our ancestor species, why not baboons too?
>
This leads to the "resource partitioning" theory. A lot of ecologists
believe that no two species can occupy the same niche for more than a short
period.
There are certainly examples of competitive displacement. Perhaps the best
known (in Britian) is the invasion of red squirrel habitats by the grey
squirrel.
However plants seem to form an exception. If you look at a not
too-intensively managed lawn you will see lots of grasses, not all of the
same species, and then within the grass a few dandelions and daisies. All
the plants seem to be competing for essentially the same resources of soil
and light.

I don't know enough about baboon ecology to give a good answer, but there
might be some situations in which a smaller- bodied primate is at an
advantage. Or it could be that you've found another exception to the
resource partitioning theory.
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