Spring Newsletter 2024

2024 has been exceptionally busy and although our High Court Application has dominated a great deal of time and attention, Baboon Matters has continued to work closely with the CT2 troop, as well as spent time in the field, undertaken several troop counts, given input on community projects across the Western Cape and have put in a great deal of work on a new, and very exciting, campaign which we will hopefully we able to roll out next year!

GOING BACKWARDS

I have worked on baboon-related issues since 1990 when entire troops of baboons were killed as the accepted method in dealing with so-called problem animals. When the original Slangkop troop was killed, the community came together and we started the Kommetjie Environmental Awareness Group (and from there Baboon Matters); it really was the start of innovative, engaging progress to manage the baboon human interface.

I won’t detail all the history of the ins and outs and baffling routes that baboon management has taken over the years, suffice to say that it seems that recently baboon management has done a giant u-turn and is rapidly going backwards.

In the early years of what is now called the Urban Baboon Program, the work was undertaken by NGO’s with funding largely coming from communities. The educational material was funded by NGOs such as IFAW and WWF and was engaging and widely spread amongst affected communities; in fact, Dr Kansky’s booklet, Baboons on the Cape Peninsula, is still considered to be one of the most useful and comprehensive tools for residents and visitors who encounter baboons.

But in 2009 the authorities jointly decided that there needed to be a professional company with qualified staff running the baboon monitor/ranger project and so the CoCT put the contract out to tender and started an entirely new approach to managing baboons whereby aversion tactics (paintballs and bear bangers) were used to attempt to create a “landscape of fear” and baboons who failed comply with the protocols would be killed.

Our views on the implementation of this strategy in conjunction with the Protocols/Guidelines is well documented – the system could only work if all the mitigation strategies were implemented (reducing attractants through effective waste management and implementing the by-laws) as the rangers on their own would not be as effective as they could be and criminalizing baboons without the mitigation strategies in place was unacceptable.

3 Effective baboon-proof bins are essential

Effective baboon-proof bins are essential as the first step of mitigation.

It is also clear that by implementing aversion tactics and using paintball guns to shoot at the opportunistic baboons, the unintended message to residents was to “teach the baboons a lesson by hurting them”. Imagine how much more effective the project would have been if the clear, enforced message had been “manage your waste effectively, remove food waste and organic matters from garbage and we will be able to manage baboons more efficiently”? Importantly, the authorities will have to work very hard to redirect the current thinking away from pain aversion and the tendency towards shooting baboons with pellet guns and will have to enforce by-laws and policies so that residents understand that reducing attractants is a far more effective strategy than illegal shooting. For the past 14 years the project has been “managed by science”, run by experts and widely claimed to be a huge success, until very recently… From being a success story, the rhetoric changed to that of too many baboons, the aversion tactics were no longer working and baboons are now “too habituated”, overlooking the fact that baboons eating from unsecured garbage is the main reason the animals come to urban areas to eat. Despite the noted “reasons”, it seems that the underlying problem is that CoCT is tired of carrying all costs of the baboon management over the years, and now wants its “partners” (SANparks and Cape Nature) to step up. The long-existing inter-governmental dispute was not resolved in court action (2015) when the CoCT took SANParks and Cape Nature to court and does not appear to be resolved now although the authorities are very quick to tell us that they have all signed the MOA, there does not appear to be agreement on implementation of strategies – or who pays. As things stand, the current contract with service provider NCC was extended to 31 December 2024, but has now been curtailed to end on 30th November 2024 meaning that there will be no experienced rangers working over the busiest months of the year. From a media release put out by the JTT; “A short-term solution will address the December period as the current Urban Baboon Programme is winding down from the end of November 2024 onwards” and “An interim solution will address the transitioning period starting on 1 January 2025” However, we do not know who will manage the process or what it will look like. There is also talk of communities running their own projects, with potential funding possibly coming from Grant in Aid. And, very sadly, there is also a great deal of talk about “reducing numbers of baboons”; about the “need to eliminate (cull) entire troops”.

And all of this talk is taking me right back to 1990s and the problem with the lack of clarity and increased presence of baboons in some areas is that frustrations run high and baboons are targeted by angry residents who may have suffered damage to property when baboons are in urban areas. Illustrating the seriousness of the situation is the fact that illegal shooting has increased and that the overall death rate of baboons is the highest it has been in years.

High Court Application and Legal Process

In 2018 Baboon Matters and Baboons of the South pushed hard for a task team to review the situation, for workshops where the authorities and role players could meet to resolve the long outstanding issues and after two successful meetings with CoCT Mayor D. Plato, we had hopes that our notion of an external task team and a collaborative workshop would be productive. Not long into the process, however, it became clear that the inter-governmental disputes were over-riding any real progress.

After the COVID lockdowns, Alderman Eddie Andrews started a process of Zoom meetings and public participation this was in response to an intervention from Minister B Creecy who directed the authorities to “sort things out”.

The authorities regrouped as the Cape Peninsula Baboon Management Joint Task Team, known as the JTT, and in the past two years have signed the MOA and produced a Baboon Strategic Management Plan – a plan that is best described as a meaningless bureaucratic document to appease the system.

It was clear to everyone that meetings, workshops, discussions and debates were getting us nowhere; the death rate of baboons was the highest it had been in years and with no solid plan in place the situation was crumbling fast.

Against this dire backdrop Ryno Engelbrecht presented his ideas as to how we could effectively hold the authorities accountable and ensure that identified solutions were implemented.

High Court Application

Applicants are: Ryno Engelbrecht, Baboon Matters Trust, Beauty Without Cruelty, and J. Bosman.
Essentially we are applying to the High Court for a court order to hold the authorities accountable to implement solutions that they have identified as mitigation strategies needed to keep baboons from urban areas. These solutions were identified in documents such as the Brownlie Document (March 2000), the Kansky Gaynor Baboon Management Plan (2002) and almost every document since.

Although the authorities have all agreed that the mitigation strategies are essential, few of the strategies (other than the ranger program) have been implemented wholly or at all, and now, despite over 800 comments in the public participation process calling from the ranger program, the rangers have been effectively cancelled with nothing that we know about in its place.

This is a service delivery fight, the authorities should have implemented all the solutions in the toolbox – irrespective of baboon management plans and community buy-in. For example, the CoCT should have provided effective baboon-proof bins, implemented traffic calming and enforced their own by-laws, irrespective of a signed-off “baboon management plan” with its partners as those are clearly CoCT responsibilities. Likewise, Cape Nature should have insisted all mitigation was in place before providing permits for nearly 80 baboons to be killed under the debatable protocols.

SANparks and TMNP have well-established regulations to keep wild animals safely within national parks and to retrieve animals who leave national parks, yet have clearly not elected either of those routes in this case. We note that TMNP own picnic areas have broken garbage bins and the electric fences have not been working for years now.

We are interested indeed to see how the members of the JTT individually explain why they have not implemented their own solutions and are removing the only mitigation strategy that is currently in place.

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Threat of Culling Entire Troop –
Letter of Demand

In response to mounting concerns arising from community meetings where CoCT manager Mr.R MacGaffen confirmed that the JTT will consider removing entire troops of baboons as management options, our lawyers prepared a Letter of Demand which was sent to each organization represented on the JTT. The responses to the LoD simply adds to our concerns, in that the replies confirm that killing troops will be considered.

From SANParks – 18 July 2024:
One of the outcomes pertains to the sustainable management of the Chacma baboon on the Cape Peninsula, which entails the undertaking of various measures, including the investigation and implementation (where appropriate) of control measures such as euthanasia, culling and translocation of the baboons.

From the JTT – 31 July 2024
Point 8: No final decision has yet been taken to implement mitigation measures under the BSMP in respect of baboon troops – such as euthanasia or translocation – and your clients’ threat of urgent interdictory relief is premature and inappropriate. Decisions are being and will be, taken by the JTT collectively or individually by its constituent members, where applicable, in the manner prescribed by the MoA. As noted, those decisions which are required to be made by the JTT are taken by consensus between the parties.

In response to the SANparks and JTT letters we have replied with a reminder of the pending Court Action, that they are under notice and that we, therefore, must be timeously informed of any decision made to cull, relocate or kill a troop of baboons.

Four Male Baboons Killed In Terms of JTT Protocols

While we have all been busy with the impending chaotic situation that will result when rangers are withdrawn, the JTT quietly and secretively killed 3 male baboons, including Creamy. Creamy (of da Gama troop) had been roaming the Fish Hoek Valley over the past few months with two females and one juvenile and subsequently, an infant was born. By killing Creamy it was hoped that the two females would rejoin the troop, but this has not happened as both females have young offspring and will probably not risk infanticide by taking their youngsters back to the troop. Since Creamy was killed, Squeak, one of the young juveniles who had joined the little group, was killed by a dog. Without the support of an adult male and without an alpha to lead the group, they are vulnerable and at risk. We have to challenge what the purpose and expected outcomes of removing individual males are. We have challenged the protocols for the past 6 years and continue to do so. In recent days Earl of Tokai has also been killed; Earl ventured across the M3 and into the Lansdown area where residents were delighted to see a baboon taking up residence in a tree for the night. Sadly, the JTT insist on killing these healthy dispersing males instead of considering alternative options, such as letting the baboons join wild troops in areas such as the Cedarberg (noting that veterinary concerns such as pathogens and disease spread can be dealt with through quarantine and appropriate checks).

Our specific concerns about the numbers of adult females (AF) within this closed population are warranted as the latest census shows; that the Da Gama troop lost 5 adult female baboons in one year, the recorded number of AF with the Da Gama troop is now just 4 adult female baboons! To put this in perspective, in 1998 the first baboon counts showed 9 AF in the Da Gama troop so there a fewer AF now than there were 26 years ago! In the southern peninsula, the population counts of 2014 recorded 66 AF whereas the 2024 counts recorded only 62 AF, so overall the numbers of breeding adult female baboons in the southern population declined. In the northern population, the adult females have fared slightly better and the six troops reflect an increase of 21 AF over the ten-year period, so an increase of just 2.1 AF per year, but remember that there are 6 troops in that region. Hence, the increases per troop are marginal. We are deeply concerned about the ratio of male to female baboons as well as the ratio of immature baboons to adults, this is not a sign of a well-managed closed population and we need the conservation authorities to step up to fulfil their statutory obligations as a matter of urgency.

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Conclusion

As we head into the last quarter of 2024, I am reminded of the dark days of this long-running problem, times when baboons spent long periods in urban areas, exacerbating tensions as baboons are hurt or killed and residents suffer property damage. I am reminded that the authorities have never worked collaboratively when it comes to allocating costs of the project and it feels like we are in a time warp where we desperately need strong leadership and a committed way forward – but instead are dealt with endless meetings, vague media statements and certainly no clarity on the Baboon Strategic Management Plan or any other document we have seen. I am relieved that we have a date on the semi-urgent roll (4th November 2024) at which time we hope that the judge will issue a Declaratory Order so that the authorities will be held accountable to the implementation of strategies desperately needed to manage the baboon human interface. Please continue to support Baboon Matters in our hard work to help, protect and save baboons.

ON-GOING SUPPORT

Baboon Matters is entirely dependent upon the financial support of the public and I thank you all for signing up for MySchool Card (please remember to swipe your card when you shop!) and to all of you who make contributions to the very hard work put into support other groups and always working towards the goals of better management of the baboon/human interface–and saving our baboons.

Thank you for your ongoing support.

Banking Details:

Baboon Matters Trust
Standard Bank Blue Route
Account: 2700 400 80

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