The city council may add a surcharge onto rates to help pay for baboon management on the Cape Peninsula.
This comes as some residents in the southern peninsula say they feel "under siege" in their homes, and are calling for the big male baboons to be moved away or shot. Tourists and local day-trippers continue to exacerbate the problem by illegally feeding the animals, re-inforcing the baboons' association of humans with food.
Residents want the authorities to secure a permanent source of funding so that baboon monitors can be hired to keep the animals out of all the affected suburbs. Monitors could also to help curb illegal feeding of the animals by tourists and day-trippers.
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Graham Noble, vice-chairman of the Baboon Management Team, made up of government and non-government representatives, said the organisation had asked the city council to collect money from residents in affected areas through the special rating mechanism. Noble said he was told the city's chief financial officer, Mike Richardson, "does not like it".
| Tourists and local day-trippers continue to exacerbate the problem |
However, Richardson told the Cape Times this was not the case. "We are exploring the option of a rates surcharge," he said,
He did not say how much it would be, and added that he preferred "a more cost effective and efficient solution". He did not say what this was.
Liz Hardman of Murdock Valley has written to CapeNature to ask for their help. "One suggestion is either to relocate or cull the more aggressive male baboons," she said.
Hardman said she had carried out CapeNature's advice to make her property unattractive to baboons, and had installed electric fencing and devices which limited the width that doors and windows could be opened. They had secured their rubbish bins, dug out fruit trees and turned their vegetable patch into a lawn, but they were still "plagued by baboons".
The baboons now tried to break windows and remove roof tiles to get into houses..
| Several baboons have already been shot or poisoned |
A few years ago, the Smitswinkel troop would run away from "a well-aimed jet of water" from a garden hose.
"Now the male baboons ferociously challenge back. This aggressive behaviour is very alarming," she said.
Noble said if there was no money to pay for monitors for all the Peninsula's baboon troops, the escalating conflict between people and baboons could lead to the animals being wiped out locally. Several baboons have already been shot or poisoned. About 10 of the Plateau Road troop disappeared last December, believed to have been killed.
The city, CapeNature and Table Mountain National Park said in a joint statement that they all recognised that baboons were "a major asset" to the Peninsula and they were committed to finding a "best practice solution" to ensuring their long-term survival. They were drafting a memorandum of understanding about baboon management to ensure conflict between baboons and humans was minimised.
"All roleplayers must be involved in ensuring that there are adequate resources to achieve this," they said.
They said their joint meeting in January had been to discuss a legal opinion obtained by the city to establish the responsibilities of each authority.
City officials would give a report to their management committee this month in which they would commit funds for baboon management for the next financial year.
melanie.gosling@inl.co.za
- This article was originally published on page 1 of Cape Times on May 04, 2009
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