Outrage over baboon removal plan: Activists voice concerns

IOL News

03-06-2025

Plans are afoot for the removal of several baboon troops due to limited resources and human conflict.
Image: File
Baboon rights activists have expressed outrage and shock at the Cape Peninsula Baboon Management Joint Task Team's Strategic Management Plan, which proposes the removal of five splinter troops, claiming hundreds of animals could be affected.
The task team last week presented the proposed action plan for the Cape Peninsula baboon, which includes the proposed removal of five splinter troops - CT1, CT2, Waterfall, Seaforth and Da Gama4, due to limited natural resources, human conflict, and poor welfare.
The plan will be reviewed by experts and the Cape Peninsula Baboon Advisory Group by mid-June.
Removal options include translocation, sanctuaries, humane euthanasia, or a combination.
The process and outcomes will be made public.
The Cape Peninsula Civil Conservation, a community engaged and representative body, said the plans would affect population numbers.
'To remove, most likely by killing, a quarter of the Cape Peninsula's managed baboon population is deeply shocking,' said conservation chairperson, Lynda Silk.
"Even though we expected an announcement along these lines for some time, our community and members are reeling.
"There is so much to consider in the impacts of this action and the possible alternatives.
"We cannot respond fully without giving this time to investigate, to feel and to consider deeply.'
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The conservation said approximately 120 of the 490 baboons on the Cape Peninsula could possibly be killed.
'There are a lot of questions and serious ethical dilemmas that this raises and need to be seriously investigated. The details of how these approximately 120 baboons in total will practically be 'removed' are still to be confirmed. They might go to a sanctuary or they may be killed.
'One can imagine that whether baboons will be killed or relocated to an enclosed sanctuary, the practicality of removing them will be extremely complex.
"Baboons are intelligent, and often difficult to trap or dart even in single numbers.
"We have watched vets attempting to dart a single baboon and having to give up and walk away when time ran out.
"How will those involved manage to capture or to kill a full troop of more than 40 baboons (Waterfall and CT1) in one go?"
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The organisation said the plan would have a ripple effect.
'We expect to see an increasing number of people breaking the law in attempts to harm baboons as it seems authorities give up on them, and we're also expecting to see others breaking the law in desperate attempts to save baboons."
The task team said the welfare of the Cape Peninsula baboon troops has severely regressed in the past three years, while the population increased, putting pressure on available resources.
'It is proposed that five splinter troops be removed from the Cape Peninsula as these troops have limited access to low-lying natural land with plants of high nutritional value for foraging; the low-lying areas are too small to sustain them; rangers have very little success in keeping the baboons out of the urban areas leading to an over-reliance on aversion techniques; the health and welfare of the troops are severely compromised; and escalating conflict between baboons and residents is being recorded," they said.
Cape Argus