Durban - She is internationally known as the Baboon Woman, a surrogate mother, guardian and advocate for the primates that are at risk of dying out in KwaZulu-Natal.
Karin Saks, of the KZN Samango Monkey Research Project, roams the forest trails and hills of the Midlands observing troops of baboons, samango and vervet monkeys.
Before the lockdown, Saks began the Samango Monkey Experience, which was a guided tour through the forest - a primate safari excursion.
“I’m hoping to start it up again after everything settles down. I hoped it would teach more people about the animals and hopefully curb their killings.”
Saks said the local baboon population was only 10% of what it was expected to be and this was because of killings, deforestation and urbanisation.
In 2015, she moved into a forest cottage in the Midlands where the troops visited her a couple of times a week. The move was the result of being driven out of the Western Cape over what she described as a war with the local farmers.
“The baboons were misunderstood and farmers were shooting, poisoning, trapping and doing their utmost to kill these animals because of property raids. The animals were just trying to survive,” she said.
Saks lived in the Crags in the Western Cape, 20km from Plettenberg Bay, where she rescued and rehabilitated orphaned baboons and vervet monkeys between 2005 and 2014.
The Crags borders the Tsitsikamma National Park, a nature reserve without fences preventing wildlife from wandering to human properties.
“As a result, wildlife is targeted by farmers. Part of my work involved helping residents to live harmoniously with baboons and monkeys. I helped to provide non-lethal solutions.
“I had a relationship with the troops and when residents chased or hurt them, they would run to me.”
She said the animals came to her terrified, mangled, with bullet wounds or snares wrapped around their necks.
“I will never forget when mothers came clutching their dead infants desperate for help,” she said.
Pacino, one of the adult male baboons visited Saks on several occasions for help, once, most notably, with a snare wrapped tightly around his neck.
“I’d put a trap cage on the back of my truck and then indicate to Pacino that he was welcome to jump in it, and he would do so. When baboons and monkeys do not want to be trapped it is extremely difficult to lure them into a trap, but Pacino knew I had his best interests at heart,” she said.
Once he was in the trap, Saks drove to the vet in town where the baboon would be sedated and treated.
“Once he was treated and back in the trap, I’d drive home, get out and open the trap door for him. He would scurry out the trap past me, and go off to find his troop,” Saks said.
This happened several times - Pacino would get injured and pitch up at her home knowing he would receive treatment, she said.
“Even when he was injured by the troop’s alpha, Bud, after a fight he would come around and get nursed.”
Saks’s relationship with the primates began towards the end of 1997 when she lived on the Crocodile River in Mpumalanga.
“A colleague working with the Centre for Animal Rehabilitation and Education brought an orphaned baby baboon to me. His mother was shot by a farmer.
“For the next eight months, I acted as a surrogate mother, nurturing the infant I named Gismo and preparing for the day he would be with his own. I began looking for a way to release Gismo into the wild and found a troop that was rehabilitated on a private nature reserve near Naboomspruit,” she said.
Saks said up until that moment, their lives were entwined; an unconscious mother-child bond had formed.
“I knew abandoning Gismo, and the subsequent guilt and fear, would stay with me as long as I lived. But his survival and future meant the world to me. For most of the rehabilitation, I was alone, reliant on my own judgement.
“My only choice was to watch and listen to the baboons for guidance. I was astonished to discover how directly we communicated; I relaxed into relying on them for help,” she said.
For two weeks she stayed inside the enclosure observing the interactions between Gismo and his new family.
“I learnt their language and made important life-or-death decisions based on their guidance. The rehabilitation was successful and our relationship ensured Gismo a safe, secure future with his own kind.”
In 2003, Penguin Publishers published the book, Life With Darwin and other Baboons by Fransje van Riel, highlighting Saks, her work and relationship with her baboon “child” Darwin.
She was also the subject of the 2009 wildlife documentary, Baboon Woman, for UK network Channel 5.