Cape Town to control baboons

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Toko
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Cape’s baboon spat rages on

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http://www.iol.co.za/scitech/science/en ... -cTprU2-Sp
Cape’s baboon spat rages on

June 21 2012 at 03:30pm
By Daneel Knoetze

Cape baboons to be put down
The city of Cape Town’s baboon management operations are set to be taken over, although it is still unclear who will foot the bill.

The contract with current monitors NCC is due to terminate at the end of June and while a tender has not yet been awarded, it is understood that Dr Phil Richardson’s Baboon Ranger Project will

step in.

However, the city is still negotiating with CapeNature and SA National Parks (SANParks) about how funding should be divided.

Currently, the city’s ratepayers pay the annual bill of R9 million – a set-up which has been described as “grossly unfair”.

“Equally, support needs to come from SANParks. Baboons migrate from the Table Mountain National Park to urban areas, so the management of the problem is theirs as well,” councillor Felicity Purchase said.

Although details of the mediation process are not known, there is an indication, says Purchase, CapeNature and SANParks have until now been reluctant to accept responsibility for funding.

“For us, the process is about sharing the costs; for them, it’s about dodging extra expenses. You can’t call that mediation. The city wants the matter to be concluded sooner rather than later. This process has been ongoing since the end of last year,” Purchase said. “If a cost-splitting agreement cannot be reached, the city will take the matter to court. We will have no choice but to seek a declaratory order (which will force SANParks and CapeNature to make a financial commitment).”

Gavin Bell of Table Mountain National Park has denied that SANParks has any responsibility to contribute financially to the monitoring initiative. “It has always been a city-run initiative. The monitors don’t operate on SANParks land, they were put in place by the city to protect residents,” he said.

City veterinarian Elzette Jordan confirmed the new contract should start on August 1. “In the interim, I want to assure residents that a temporary arrangement will ensure that the basic functions of the monitoring progamme will still be fulfilled.”

Jordan said that a heavier emphasis on “tools” (which include bear bangers and paintball guns) and “other technologies” (such as electric fences, sensors and tracking collars) could make the monitors more effective and drive down the costs.

The Baboon Monitoring Programme came into focus this week after CapeNature announced that two dominant males in the Smitswinkel Troop, Merlin and Force, would be put down. The Smitswinkel Troop is notorious for raiding cars, restaurants, camp sites and urban areas for food. Merlin and Force have lost all fear of people and their case histories attest to the fact that they are “problem animals”, said Jordan.

Apart from drawing criticism from the public and some sectors of the baboon research community, the decision to cull the baboons has brought the efficacy of the monitoring programme into focus.

The programme was designed to discourage baboon human contact on the Peninsula. It has claimed some successes in deterring baboons from urban areas (such as Simon’s Town) and educating motorists and tourists about the raiding habits of baboons in the area.

Yet the programme has failed to spot-fine people who feed the baboons. More importantly, it has failed to stop baboons from climbing into parked cars around Millers Point, not to mention the more bold exploits of dominant males such as Merlin and Force.

While experts agree that less human-baboon contact is good for all involved, there is fierce debate around how to achieve this.

Jenni Trethowan of the Baboon Matters Trust, who has worked with baboons around the Cape for over 20 years, was critical of the city’s decision to cull problem animals, arguing that it was inappropriate human behaviour which needed to be managed.

“Baboons, by their very nature, are unmanageable. This means that managing people and monitoring staff on the ground is our only hope,” she says. “Using paintball guns to scare baboons off is not a sustainable solution.”

However, Justin Oriain, a researcher at UCT’s Baboon Research Unit says human behaviour is equally unmanageable. He was critical of activists who opposed the euthanasia of problem animals.

“They always make a big noise and try to vilify us, but in the end they don’t have solutions to offer,” he said. “Monitors need to deter baboons from urban areas, with paintball guns and bear bangers if need be.”

Oriain added, however, that experience and research has shown monitors were not a solution to the problem.

“The only thing that will keep baboons out of urban areas are electrified, baboon-proof fences. A pilot fence has been put up in the Scarborough area and more will follow,” he said. - Cape Argus



You can sign a petition to stop the killing: Stop Baboons being Killed in the Cape Peninsula.


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Cape Town to control baboons

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2012-07-09 11:47

Cape Town - Measures have been implemented to deal with recent raids by baboons into Gordon's Bay, the City of Cape Town said on Monday.

A troop of baboons had in recent weeks been seen regularly entering Gordon's Bay and foraging in the town's residential area, including raiding refuse bins, the city said in a statement.

The municipality has implemented an awareness drive to educate residents, and procured baboon-proof bins, along with other equipment.

Officials were also co-ordinating with residents to keep baboons out of town, and baboons were being tracked to understand troop behaviour so residents could be warned.

An information meeting was being organised and would be advertised.

Result

The situation was a direct result of residents feeding baboons, or not managing waste properly, the city said.

The city advised residents to not feed baboons, warn neighbours when baboons were in the vicinity, defend their "territory" by making a loud noise, spraying water and throwing small stones, and treat baboons with caution.

However, a resident could not use any method which could injure or kill a baboon.

"The use of equipment, such as pellet guns, is illegal and residents could be held responsible for acts of cruelty toward animals."

Injured or maimed baboons were unable to re-join their troops in its natural areas.

There was also a baboon-hotline to alert officials when baboons were seen in town.

It was reported on Tuesday that Pringle Bay residents, near Gordon's Bay, were outraged at the makers of a National Geographic documentary using food to lure baboons to a house in the area.

Aggressive

The Cape Times reported that the primates were filmed with hidden cameras placed in a specially modified and fully furnished cottage, part of the Cape Hangklip Hotel.

The television series, Big Baboon House, had angered residents as it undermined years of effort to keep the animals out of their houses.

The Pringle Bay Baboon Action Group said there had been a steady increase in aggressive baboon activity in the past three months.

"What they did is completely unacceptable. To lure baboons with food is not only illegal, it also disrupts the peaceful cohabitation we've been trying to maintain between humans and baboons."

On the show's official blog, development director Jaco Botha reportedly said his biggest thrill had been the first time the baboons broke into the house, as it showed they could be filmed without "having any effect on their natural behaviour".

Digital media content producer Meghan Gleason was reported saying they had "undertaken a simian social experiment of a lifetime" to understand baboon behaviour.

This was "so we can learn how to keep them out of homes and coexist peacefully with their human counterparts... all while having a little fun along the way as we observe these baboons having free reign over a posh house".


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Re: Cape Town to control baboons

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We shall learn our lesson quickly should large dart guns be used at first, then just any long gun waved as a copy. We are not that proud...and the main problem is we should not be fed. However, once fed we shall seek food in the houses!


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Re: Cape Town to control baboons

Post by Flutterby »

When we were up at Sun City last week people were having great fun feeding the vervets despite the leaflets in the rooms asking people not to and the huge signs everywhere else!!! O/ O/

But as you say RP, you and your cousins are not so stupid. A guard was patrolling the grounds with a paintball gun, and the monkeys disappeared as soon as they saw him.


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New team for baboon management

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2012-07-31 11:03

Cape Town - A new contractor will take over the controversy-ridden task of baboon management on the Cape Peninsula, it was reported on Tuesday.

The Cape Times reported that Human Wildlife solutions, headed by behavioural ecologist Philip Richardson, would take on the task from Wednesday.

The R10m contract would span the next two years.

The City of Cape Town confirmed the company would place collars on dominant baboons to track them.

It would also provide training to baboon monitors and use paintballs, bear bangers (flares which emit a gunshot noise) and pepper spray to deter baboons from entering urban areas.

According to the report, the management of baboons was a contentious issue with many scientists and experts advocating different ways of handling the creatures.

Many baboons along the peninsula had become used to humans, often raiding homes and displaying aggressive behaviour.


- SAPA


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Re: Cape Town to control baboons

Post by nan »

0*\ Baboons and cousins 0*\


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Re: Cape Town to control baboons

Post by Lisbeth »

It sounds exactly like three years ago O/ Hopefully the new contractor can do better!!


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Re: Cape Town to control baboons

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CT baboons get 'paintballed'

CT baboons get 'paintballed'
Tue, 13 Nov 2012 3:28 PM

Baboons in Cape Town are being paintballed to drive them out of residential suburbs and stop them from pillaging homes and cars on brazen food raids, an official said on Tuesday.

The animals are shot by monitors who shadow the city's several primate troops, which are notorious for causing havoc in areas bordering their natural mountain habitat.

"It does work, it's actually fantastic," said city veterinary scientist Elzette Jordan.

"They hate it so much, so when they just see you with it and you shake it and they hear the paintballs rattling inside, then they move off already, and you don't actually have to shoot."

The paintballs are being used alongside other aversion techniques while a baboon management road map is drawn up.

Paintballing is the most common technique and its success is attributed to the apes not liking projectiles being hurled at them.

However, some street-wise animals have learned to spot white paint and duck when it is fired, forcing monitors to use more colourful options.

Cape Town's mountainous peninsula is home to several protected Chacma baboon troops and bold plunders are frequent. People have been injured in some instances.

"Our current strategy is to get them 100 percent out of urban space," Jordan told AFP.

"We want to push them back into the natural space and for us to do that, we have to teach them that they can never be quite sure and feel safe inside the urban space, and that's why we're using aversion conditioning techniques."

The paintballs were first trialled at the beginning of the year.


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Re: Cape Town to control baboons

Post by nan »

certainly a good idea... but they are clever... they will learnt soon, very soon O**
the struggle is not yet to the end :-?


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Re: Cape Town to control baboons

Post by Richprins »

:twisted:


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