Conservation officials have “reluctantly” resumed shooting Himalayan tahr on Table Mountain as part of a programme to reintroduce klipspringer and other indigenous buck there.
The announcement was made on Monday by Table Mountain National Park (TMNP) manager Brett Myrdal, who said four males have been killed since last Friday by sharpshooters brought in from the Kruger National Park.
He said this follows last month’s dismissal of a court challenge by the Friends of the Tahr organisation, which has for years stalled park officials’ efforts to get rid of the goat-like aliens.
Myrdal said all approximately 100 tahr will eventually be shot as part of a “slow and planned” programme to create conditions for reintroducing animals such as the klipspringer and grey rhebuck, which have become locally extinct on the mountain.
He asked members of the public to understand that South African National Parks (Sanparks) staff are animals lovers too.
“We don’t look forward to what we’re going to do,” he said.
“Our team at TMNP is also traumatised by the requirement of removal but, as custodians of the mountain and the sea, we have the responsibility to look to the future, which does entail carrying out difficult decisions that may challenge one’s own personal world views.
“Ultimately we have to consider issues in terms of biodiversity conservation … In time to come people will recognise that these are the correct decisions.”
The tahr on Table Mountain originate from a single pair that escaped in 1936 from the now-defunct Groote Schuur zoo.
They numbered at least 700 during the 1970s before the City of Cape Town initiated a culling programme that was stopped, then restarted by park managers in April 2000.
It was stopped again in July that year after 54 animals had been killed, in the face of a challenge from the Friends of the Tahr that eventually filed papers in the high court.
Referring to proposals to relocate the creatures, Myrdal said on Monday that to the best of Sanparks’ knowledge, “never once” in the five-year saga has the Friends of the Tahr or anyone else formally applied for a translocation permit.
He said the dismissal of the court challenge “binds us to our original decision to eradicate Himalayan tahrs”.
“Any alteration to this decision would make Sanparks vulnerable to further litigation. For that reason we cannot reconsider that decision and will implement it.”
Myrdal said mature klipspringers weigh between 8kg and 12kg and are either solitary or occur in pairs. Tahrs weigh between 50kg and 100kg and are herd animals by nature, resulting in far greater erosion impacts.
The klipspringer is a selective browser and the tahr is a “generalist” feeder, known to climb trees to browse and to root up corms and bulbs with its horns. This is having a devastating impact on a wide range of plants, some of them endemic to the mountain.
It is also believed that the presence of tahr on the mountain is responsible for the diminishing numbers of rock dassie and for endangering the red-data-listed Cape spiny mouse.
Asked about anticipated public reaction to the shooting programme, Myrdal said most people appreciate Sanparks’ sincerity in wanting to reintroduce klipspringer.
There will, however, be a minority of animals rights groupings that will not be persuaded.
“We must agree to differ,” he said.
He said it is not clear at this stage what will be done about the fallow deer and sambar which live on the lower slopes of Table Mountain. — Sapa
‘No ethical clearance’ for tahr killings