Wildlife groups, I&APs and residents are calling for an immediate moratorium on killing baboons

Jul 15, 2019 | Blog article

In Cape Town, an immediate moratorium is now an urgent priority but a national moratorium is equally important when one considers, for example,  the incredibly high numbers of baboons killed in pine plantations monthly. 
 
For the moment, we want to focus on the Cape peninsula and the recent events that have resulted in this call to action.
 
Since it was implemented in 2010, Baboon Matters has opposed the Protocol for raiding baboons as we felt that the guidelines criminalise baboons, but in no way hold businesses, authorities or residents accountable to management of attractants that encourage baboons to come into human areas. Simply put, we understand more than most the difficulties of baboons in our homes but baboons are wild animals and the easy opportunities we create for baboons to take, meaning the more they will take them – baboons shouldn’t be classified as “criminals” because we forget to close the windows or put trash away securely, secure our property through means of considering the environment around and acting accordingly. 
 
Since the implementation of the Protocol, 74 baboons have been killed, yet there have been scant improvements to waste management, education or community awareness. The “baboon-proof” bins tendered by the City of Cape Town and delivered to key areas this year are proving problematic and are, reportedly, not baboon-proof.
Despite  the lack of overall improvement to waste management, and in the absence of any by-laws for baboon affected areas, 5 so-called “problem raiders” were killed in May and June, their main “crimes”  were listed as “being in the urban areas and acquiring human derived foods”; in other words getting food from our easily accessible trash. 

Making the issue even more urgent, and emotive, is the fact that the remaining four female baboons of the Misty Cliffs troop have been targeted for “euthanasia in terms of the protocol”.

The history of the Misty Cliffs troop is an horrific blot in the copybook of baboon management on the Cape peninsula. The Groot Olifantsbos (GOB) troop first became habituated to easy food rewards gained from Scarborough in early 2000; note that it took almost two years before monitors were employed to try and get the baboons out of the village, this was two years too long.
(Pay attention Hermanus and other villages – it is far harder to un-train clever baboons than it is to be proactive by employment of monitors and management of attractants to keep baboons out of urban areas.)
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The main GOB troop spilt in 2012-13 and management had to contend with both the GOB and Misty Cliffs (MC) troops. Within overall management objectives, there had been little to no changes to policy or education – the game plan was use of aversion tactics and then removal of individuals…
So the MC troop was killed off – from 18 baboons down to just 3 adult females and 3 juveniles in April 2019. Then came the tragic road death of one juvenile, demonstrating just how vulnerable this small group are but it was the inexplicable death of the next juvenile, whose body was found floating in a swimming pool, that galvanized public outcry to save the remaining four baboons.

It is, perhaps, understandable that the authorities who sit on the BTT (Baboon Technical Team) have “gone to ground” as it were; baboon management came under fire in 2018 for the secretive issuance of hunting permits to two Cape wine estates (Klein Constantia and Buitenverwachting) and the subsequent “disappearance” of 20 or 30 or 40 baboons – no report has ever been issued to explain what happened to the baboons and certainly there have been no real investigations or prosecution that we are aware of.

After the Constantia Killings had been leaked to the media, the BTT came under immense public scrutiny and the Baboon Liaison Group (supposedly representing the civic voice on baboon issues) simply disbanded. The BLG had not adequately fulfilled their role in reporting back to communities, but their total disappearance left a gaping hole in the flow of community input and public representation.

Key figures and groups in baboon management challenged the system and lack of accountability and in response Ward Councillor S. Leill-Cock hand-picked a few folk, dubbed them the CARBS (Councillor Appointed Reps Baboons South) and that was pretty much that. As far as we know there are no known purposes or objectives of the group and there have been no meetings between the CARBS and the BTT…

While the communities were lodging concerns and unhappiness, the machinations of the BTT quietly, carried on and in March 2019 a new protocol was silently slipped into place. The new protocol (link below) has substantially lowered the level of “acceptable” numbers of “raids” by baboons, and it is of concern to note that whereas in the original protocol “frequent raids” were noted at 5x per week; this has been dropped to now 4x per month! Category 3 (high risk behaviour) now allow for just one incident!

The problem with the protocol and its implementation is how incidents and “raids” are decided, the system seems inconsistent and influenced by complaints rather than accurate records of events.
The most recently killed baboon was Johnny Bravo, by all accounts a very unassuming character; but an unexpected appearance in a garden might be enough for some residents to phone the hotline and rant about an attacking baboon – is this fair or logical?
Regrettably it seems to happen all too often and many residents now do not want to call the official hotline in case their report is recorded as a complaint that may lead to the death of another baboon

How will the newly revised protocol affect baboons directly? According to the new criteria all four of the Misty Cliff girls should be “euthanised”, and for that matter so to should a great many baboons of the Da Gama and Waterfalls troops. What about the 6 baboons who hopped through a broken window into a local bakery and enjoyed gorgeous cakes – should they be killed too?

There undoubtedly is a great deal of emotion about the survival of the Misty Cliff four who have the limited choices of; electing to walk themselves back into the reserve (where they may be killed as were Slimkop, Moby, Sparky, Zamaka and others), or they can join “another troop” (not sure which one?) or they can stay in Scarborough (and then they will be killed in terms of the protocol).
The only slim chance that may offer long term solutions for these girls is if the proposed electric fence is approved by residents and all relevant landowners, that funding is made immediately available and that the BTT agree not to kill the girls while the fence is being installed.

The girls will not be given permits to go to a rehabilitation facility, sanctuary or any other land off the Cape peninsula.

And people are telling me the baboons “seem angry” at the moment – if I was a baboon I would be frankly furious!

But let’s remove the emotion and go back to the start, a call for a moratorium.
There is clear reason to stop killing baboons. Here are just two points; firstly there is enough demonstrable evidence to support the fact that a “landscape of fear”, aversion tactics and the killing of individual baboons has NOT solved the problem. 74 deaths demonstrate this. If the ideas had worked, baboons would be staying out of villages and none would be killed – clearly this is not the case

Secondly, the public do not want baboons killed and the authorities need to hear their voice. The issue has been raised many times over the years, but there is a new level of anger from the general public, they are frustrated at the lack of change, lack of transparency and on-going killing of baboons.

Baboon Matters and many other organisations are endorsing a letter to the BTT calling for an immediate moratorium of killing the Cape peninsula baboons. We will also be calling on the National Minister of Environment to implement a moratorium on killing baboons.

To inform all your own decision making, here are the original and revised protocols for baboon management, each can be found on these links:

http://www.baboons.org.za/images/Protocols/Protocol_For_Raiding_Baboons_July_2011.pdf

http://hwsolutions.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Guidelines-for-Baboon-Management-March-2019.pdf

Here’s what YOU can do to help Baboon Matters help baboons.

 

 

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