When the baboons’ behaviour is no longer entertaining and damage is done to one’s property, it’s time to stand together as a community.
This is exactly what the community of Pringle Bay did when they took part in a peaceful protest on Saturday.
After years of struggling with the baboons who have lost their fear of humans, some Pringle Bay residents decided enough is enough and started campaigns to rewild Pringle Bay’s baboons.
According to the Facebook page Rewild Pringle Bay’s Baboons their collective goal is to transition these baboons away from urban areas, ensuring their return to the natural wealth of their habitat. “While we recognise the necessity of negative reinforcement to achieve this objective it is crucial that the baboons must not be harmed. It is further crucial to dispel any perception that the baboons must remain in town for sustenance,” the Facebook page stated.
After the baboons wreaked havoc in the town and attacked children some Rewild Pringle Bay’s Baboons members got together on 30 March to express their displeasure.
More than 600 signatures were gathered on Saturday, and according to the organisers this event was very successful.
“Our aim is not to ‘remove the baboons from the biosphere’; please remember that this is not true. We are simply aiming to get Overstrand Municipality and Cape Nature to keep them away from the unsafe and unhealthy [for the baboons] residential area for most of the time, as per the official baboon-management plan, without interference of self-appointed groups. We all care, or we would not live in Pringle Bay. Keeping the baboons in the village all of the time is simply not sustainable,” the Rewild Pringle Bay’s Baboons’ group stated.
This action sparked a debate on Facebook. One Facebook user urged the residents to consider carefully before joining a call for the removal of the relatively small Pringle Bay troop of 20.
He said: “As authorities and experts have reminded us before, this will create a vacuum for the Hangklip and/or Silversands troops that are double the size of our troop, to move in for the available fynbos in the village, that they need and want. No right-minded person wants baboons in their homes or eating from their bins. And no Pringle Bay resident or visitor wants to have to deal with a troop of unmonitored 40-plus baboons.”
The Facebook user said the municipality was very aware of the problems with the Pringle Bay troop and were working towards solutions.
“What we can do, meanwhile, is step-up maturely and responsibly by ensuring our homes and bins are baboon proofed.”
Some questions asked by residents and environmental activists are: Is “humane monitoring” solely a passive process of monitoring [watching and recording] or an active process [deterring/changing] activity of baboons? Do you have any concern about habituation of baboons through peaceful humane monitoring of baboons? Do you believe that baboons should not be within the urban area at all? If so, how will they transit between the beach, mountains, sleeping areas?
What levels of deterrence is acceptable under what circumstances? If a private citizen is happy to have baboons forage for fynbos or seeds/grasses on their private property, is this acceptable to you?
The baboon problem is not only limited to Pringle Bay, but Kleinmond, Bettys Bay and Voëlklip are also problem areas.
On 4 August Hermanus Times reported on the baboons in Kleinmond (“Baboons roam the streets of Kleinmond”, 4 August 2023) and Dean O’Neill, Municipal Manager of Overstrand Municipality, said: “Every resident and visitor has a responsibility to manage their waste properly and to secure their waste bins before the baboons get hold of them. No black bags may be left on pavements.”
. The Overstrand Eco-monitors (aka baboon criers) also patrol to warn residents that a baboon troop has entered the town.
