Gregory Mthembu-Salter
The newly established Cape Peninsula National Park (CPNA) this week shocked conservationists with its statement that there is no longer a place for most of the baboons on the peninsula.
Acting manager Howard Langley said in a media statement that “just as the peninsula has lost its ability to sustain natural populations of large predator and antelope species, so it appears, sadly, to have lost its ability to sustain baboons”.
Presently there are 360 baboons on the peninsula, in 10 troupes. However Langley, whose organisation pledges to “accept the responsibility of conservation in a peri- urban open park”, suggests that “there may only be room for one or two troupes”.
Baboons have lived on the Cape Peninsula for millennia, but only became seriously threatened following a recent massive housing boom. The baboons became a serious menace to coastal villages like Scarborough, Kommetjie and Da Gama Park, often entering and trashing houses.
Some residents fought back by shooting baboons and with the situation approaching crisis point, monitors were employed last year by a coalition consisting of the CPNA, the local municipality, Cape Nature Conservation and environmental activists, to chase the baboons away.
The six monitors, who were all previously unemployed members of the Red Hill informal settlement, proved extraordinarily successful. The baboons were kept out of the coastal villages, people stopped shooting them, and the baboons found enough food to keep them going in the mountainous areas above the villages. Even since the devastating fires in January, the baboons have coped well, and have not needed the nutrition supplements that some feared at the time might be necessary.
The money ran out for the monitors, who cost R12E000 a month to employ, in April. Since then, the baboons have returned and residents are complaining again, though there are no reports so far of any baboons being shot.
Local residents’ organisations are demanding that a concerted effort be made to raise the money for the monitor programme to continue. They point out that most residents in affected villages say they will contribute, and add that tourists can help too. Baboons are a popular attraction for visitors to the peninsula and it has been suggested that funds be raised by charging tourists to accompany the monitors to observe the baboons at close quarters.
Meanwhile, the Baboon Management Team, established by provincial MEC for Tourism Glen Adams last year, and consisting of most of those concerned, has failed to make progress on the funding issue. Part of the reason, claim insiders, is that the CPNA is hostile to the monitoring programme.
The CPNA argues that monitoring will push the baboons towards Cape Town, necessitating “hundreds, even thousands, of baboon chasers”. Yet a recent report on the monitoring suggests otherwise. The report says that baboons have home ranges inhibiting them from straying too far, and that, anyway, there is plenty of food where they are at present.
Local councillor Nikki Holdeness, who has a special responsibility for peninsula baboons, believes “the crunch time is now. Funding is of course an issue, but we can find it if the will is there. I absolutely support the monitors.”
CPNA for its part insists that it does not want to cull baboons, though conceding it may want to move them elsewhere, claiming instead to be just “raising the issues”.