Cape Town - While baboon authorities are satisfied that their interventions have kept these animals out of urban areas, some Cape Town residents fear baboons are being “culled” as a quick solution to the problem.
Dr Elzette Jordan, of the City of Cape Town’s Baboon Technical Team, said baboons were being deterred from entering urban areas 90 percent of the time, well above the target of 80 percent. The figures refer to the period from July 2012 to July 2013. But Lorna Thomas, a resident of Welcome Glen who tracks the baboons, said about 30 baboons had been killed in the past year.
Jordan said: “There are baboons that are unmanageable, animals that press through and raid houses.” She explained that baboons were only put down after extensive consultation with various authorities.
Protocols for putting a baboon down were considered, including whether the baboon was a repeat offender when it came to raiding, if he was a dispersing male who would not return to the troop or if it was sick or injured.
There had been huge success with aversion methods and the baboon “crisis” in Kommetjie and Smitswinkel Bay had been dealt with.
While Cape Nature prohibits the feeding of baboons, Jordan said there were tourists and residents who still did it. “We are trying to keep the baboons as wild as possible.”
Dr Ernest Baard, of Cape Nature, said that while baboons formed part of the area’s ecosystem, they were not an endangered species. “If we allow the population to grow beyond the maximum capacity… mass euthanasia might one day become necessary.”
But Thomas said: “There is growing concern about the scientific input that has been adopted – from killing baboons for raiding non baboon-proofed properties to pain aversion tools.”
Meanwhile, Ossie Asmal, city director of environmental resource management, said the city was funding a big portion of the baboon management programme and it was in discussions with provincial government and SANParks about future finance. In 2012, the cost of baboon management was about R9-million.
Julia Wood, of the city’s biodiversity management branch, said they were looking at fine tuning the baboon management model to make it more cost-effective. - Cape Argus