Call to aid Constantia baboon battle

Baboon activists paying monitors to keep a splinter baboon troop roaming Constantia in check have again appealed for funds to keep the project going until the end of the year.

The team started monitoring the CT2 baboon troop after the City removed its rangers, who had been monitoring the group, in April last year (“Baboon Matters picks up the slack,” Constantia Bulletin, November 10, 2022).

The monitors - who are supported by Baboon Watch WC, Tokai Baboon Action Group and Baboon Matters - work in the vicinity of Rhodes Drive, Constantia Nek and Southern Cross Drive to warn motorists of nearby baboons and keep the primates out of houses while the authorities finalise a plan to manage baboons on the Cape Peninsula.

But the groups say their fund-raising drives only cover a third of the running costs, and over the past six months, Baboon Matters covered the balance but can no longer do so.

Last week, the Cape Peninsula Baboon Management Joint Task Team, made up of representatives from SANParks, CapeNature, and the City, said in a statement that a draft baboon-management plan would be finalised by the end of September and it would then seek nominations of public representatives to serve on a baboon advisory group.

More than 800 comments received during the public participation period from the end of January to the end of the March would be considered as the task team finalised the draft plan, the statement said.

The task team said it would hold two-to-three months of meetings with communities from October to discuss area-specific solutions.

However, Jenni Trethowan, founder of Baboon Matters, said the task team couldn’t ignore what was happening on the ground while it worked on a long-term plan.

“When the City withdrew the ranger programme from this troop they were left to their own devices so they were wandering around at will onto properties, into houses. Baboons were able to secure very high reward, easy foods, for example, from dustbins, vegetable gardens and fruit trees. Because there was no attempt made to redirect the baboon away from the urban area, they did get used to getting these high reward foods in that whole Constantia Nek, Southern Cross, Rhodes Drive area. They have identified really quickly which day is rubbish day.

“The residents there were not prepared for baboons, nobody in that area had seen baboons for many years, there are no baboon-proof bins. That is the problem.

“You’ve got these incidents of the baboons being unmanaged while the City is working on their draft strategic management plan. The fact is that you need a contingency plan because baboons don't just stay in one place, it is a fluid situation and they move. There can’t be nothing happening at all while they sit and plan their plans.”

It was ridiculous that NGOs were organising raffles and music evenings to fund a project that the City should be managing.

“Baboon Matters alone since we have been running the project has contributed R300 000 directly, and we are a tiny tiny NGO.”

According to the Baboon Matters website, the project is costing them R43 500 a month. Daily costs are R1050 for monitors (R350 per person) and R400 for transport.

Gordon Chunnett, who lives in Duntaw Close off Rhodes Drive, said there were frequent baboon raids in the area, and in July he was confronted by a male baboon in his kitchen.

“I made a noise and the moment he and his mate ran out, they jumped onto the roof of the car port area and from there onto the roof of the main house.”

The baboons had then got into his bedroom through a window.

“I ran upstairs, and by the time I got upstairs, they had left a mess. They had been on my bed, and they obviously had been eating stuff which they then spat out on the floor.”

The City had had no right to remove its contracted rangers, and the baboon activists’ monitors were not helping, he said.

“The monitors don't do any good by shepherding them along the road. Baboons need to be removed. That is what we have asked for. What we have stated all along is remove the baboons. They were never here,” he said, adding that the baboons had only arrived during a three-month gap when the City had changed its baboon-management contractors.

Baboon Watch WC and Baboon Matters have arranged a live music fund-raiser at La Parada on Friday, September 15, from 6.30 pm. Tickets cost R150. WhatsApp 083 409 3585 to book. There will be raffle tickets at the door.

The Cape Peninsula Baboon Management Joint Task Team did not respond by deadline to requests for comment.