The new Adaptive Baboon Management Plan in Pringle Bay has sparked mixed reactions.
The Overstrand Municipality (OM) Baboon Management Team has been implementing the Adaptive Baboon Management Plan (ABMP) since 1 June, approaching the troop with gentle herding and guidance out of the urban area and towards their natural home range.
“As mentioned in the management plan, presented at the Ward Committee meeting, and published on the municipal website and Facebook Page, the Municipality will continue the soft-release implementation,” said the Municipal Manager Dean O’Neill. “This includes trialling and testing the various methods namely the use of a skid unit, strobing flashlights, drone usage, paintball markers and gel blasters and, when necessary, primer usage.”
He said the theoretical education of the Eco Rangers has been completed and the technical and in-field training for the first group of rangers, on the use and implementation of the paintball markers and gel blasters, has been completed.
“In the coming week the last group’s in-field training will be completed, after which the adaptive management plan will be fully implemented.
“The team is positive that they will start seeing results, namely less time spent and sleeping in town, from one month to the next, as the adaptive management plan is implemented, and adapted accordingly. Residents will get updates as to the progress and adaptations of the programme.”
O’Neill made it clear that the information shared on social media platforms of the implementation and the use of the various ABMP methodologies on 28 June, have been construed inaccurately.
“The Eco Rangers work extended hours daily and may only, according to the labour law, work certain hours per week, so the teams work in shifts from 07:00 to 18:00. On 28 June, the team left the Pringle Bay troop on the mountain ridge above Surf Road and Hangklip Road after successfully moving them out of the urban area before being transported home.
“A smaller team, consisting of the Operational Manager and Eco Ranger Supervisor returned to the field after 18:00 to find that the troop had moved back into town and was positioned on the roof of an occupied house,” O’Neill related.
He said the residents of the property granted permission for OM to move the troop off the roof. “The paintball markers and gel blasters were shown to the troop and a few warning shots were fired in the air and paintballs were shot against the ground and some on the walls of the property for the baboons to associate the sound of the markers with paintballs being fired. No baboons were shot with paintballs.”
O’Neill said after the warning shots were fired only empty paintball marker magazines and gel blasters were used to fire air shots as a sound aversion. “The photographs posted on social media about baboons being shot with paintballs are untrue. The paintball markers being used by the OM team have been set to its lowest setting and we would therefore have been facing the baboon from less than 2 m away to inflict such an injury.”
He wants to remind residents the Baboon Management Team has the necessary permits to implement the ABMP. “Residents are not allowed to take matters into their own hands, nor may they interfere with the duties of the Eco Rangers.”
One Facebook user posted: “So, it is okay to deface the buildings on your property with paint and operate strobe lights in your space?” Another concerned resident asked if the Pringle Bay troop had any sleep sites, as the Hangklip troop had taken the Pringle Bay troop’s ones.
