Killing entire troops of Cape baboons is once again a very real threat despite 25 years of hard effort

Daily Maverick

2 days ago

If we are to sum up more than 25 years of active work, research and effort, we can say that there are no baboon-proof bins, none of the suggested strategic baboon-proof fences, no fines or prosecutions, very little education or signage, but now a huge threat of loss of life for 120 baboons.
3 June 3 2025: 120 baboons to be 'removed'
In my book Beast or Blessing I examined the history of baboons and established that baboons have been around for many thousands of years, and certainly living on the Cape Peninsula before the arrival of the first settlers.
But it is neither here nor there who got here first – the priority must be to manage the situation so that we co-exist; wildlife neighbours alongside urban dwellers.
In my mind, I see baboons living their best lives in natural spaces and in the event that they opportunistically forage in human occupied spaces, I would hope we have efficient steps in place to minimise conflict and to keep our different spaces respectfully separate.
Given their respective mandates, roles and responsibilities, the authorities should make our ideals a reality. However, the nub of the problem is that although the City of Cape Town, CapeNature, SANParks and Table Mountain National Park (the Joint Task Team, JTT) have known about baboons on the Cape Peninsula all this long time they have failed to manage either baboons or their human neighbours appropriately.
Looking back over the peninsula's history, apart from sound aversion trials at Cape Point in the 1950s, there was no management other than if the baboons 'stepped out of line' whole troops were executed.
Baboons were disposable and our conservation bodies acquiesced as scientists and doctors used baboons to experiment upon (who can forget Dr Chris Barnard's experimental heart surgery for which countless baboons gave their lives).
It was only in the 1990s, when Wally Petersen and I started KEAG, that the lack of management really came under scrutiny and efforts were made to educate residents and find mitigation solutions. The Kansky Gaynor WWF Management Plan of 2002 laid out and prioritised solutions and Dr Kansky's educational booklet, 'Baboons on the Cape Peninsula', provided education and understanding to residents of affected areas. (Both of these documents are still valued today).
But despite the focused management plan and education drive, the roles of the authorities continued to be problematic and their lack of cooperation held the project back from achieving all it could. For example, they all agreed on mitigation – in fact their own protocols insist on mitigation as the first step in management – yet there are still no baboon-proof bins and no fines for noncompliance of existing regulations and by-laws.
The JTT state that they manage a 'healthy, sustainable population' of baboons within this urban context and they do so by relying heavily on the monitor project – ironically referred to as the Urban Baboon Programme. The URBAN Baboon programme, not baboons of the wild programme.
And the irony continues as the baboons are blamed for being overly habituated due to being 'fed by residents', when in fact the baboons are being 'fed' daily from unsecure waste and from bins, from poorly managed business sites and at the SA Navy. Could CapeNature fine the City of Cape Town for feeding baboons, I wonder?
Although I am quite sure a few people may actively feed baboons, the main cause of 'time in town' is the high food attractants found in waste and these rich rewards will continue to lure baboons into town no matter how often baboons are hurt, paintballed or shot. We know this, yet after 26 years there are still no baboon-proof bins and in the latest bin procurement failure we are told that they 'underestimated how strong baboons are' and that the new lock won't work.
Flags of concern were raised as early as 2004 when Dr Kansky noted how little of the management plan had been implemented and called for an audit. The authorities dived for cover and instead of the objective review requested, they became progressively less inclined to implement any of the mitigation solutions.
We could talk about the court cases, the workshops, the endless meetings, but at the end of all of that hard effort and time, killing entire troops of baboons is once again a very real and imminent threat because, really, the JTT are simply too disinterested to do anything else.
More than 80 baboons were killed in terms of the JTT's BBTG3 protocol – despite the fact that their own protocol calls for mitigation strategies as the first step. Now 120 baboons must be removed – removed to either a newly created sanctuary or they will be killed – or there may be a combination of some baboons being killed and some removed if a sanctuary can be found.
If we are to sum up more than 25 years of active work, research and effort, we can say that there are no baboon-proof bins, none of the suggested strategic baboon-proof fences, no fines or prosecutions, very little education or signage, but now a huge threat of loss of life for 120 baboons.
What is so very sad in this whole shambolic mess is the fact that the JTT have trialled aversion techniques, but never given any consideration for attracting the baboons back up the mountains. We have suggested enriching areas, provision of water points, planting food forests and even short-term food provisioning to break the cycle of baboons coming into urban areas and rather keeping them on the mountain – all to no avail.
The new service provider is hoping to reach a consensus on the way forward – but to get to that point we are expected to accept that there will be no negotiation on the one area that the general public probably would get behind and support: provisioning as a trial rather than killing as an end result.
As we wade through the current murky mess one thing is clear: we will not stop fighting!
To quote the Green Group of Simon's Town (in relation to the new JTT plan): 'Talk of euthanasia isn't humane – it's calculated killing to conceal failure. This is not the baboons' failure. It's the failure of management, of policy and of ethics.' DM
Jenni Trethowan is the founder member of the Baboon Matters Trust and has been advocating for better management of the baboon-human interface for the past 25 years.