Cape Town Approves Controversial Baboon Relocation Plan to Curb Invasions
Cape Town approved a controversial plan to capture, sterilize, and relocate baboon troops to curb break-ins, sparking backlash from animal rights activists.
Cape Town Approves Controversial Baboon Relocation Plan
The City Council of Cape Town, South Africa, has announced an immediate plan to capture, sterilize, and relocate two baboon troops to a new reserve, in an effort to curb break-ins across the Cape Peninsula. The decision has sparked intense controversy between local residents and animal rights activists who oppose the move.
The approved municipal plan involves the immediate capture of two major troops, "Waterfall" and "Smitswinkel", which are involved in daily friction with residents. Following capture, the monkeys will undergo sterilization and be permanently transferred to a designated reserve. In addition, the municipality will construct a northern boundary fence to separate urban areas from the mountains.
Conflict Between Residents and Activists
The decision comes against the backdrop of property damage and a decline in quality of life on the peninsula. Baboons routinely infiltrate homes, tear off roof tiles, and steal food from cars and grocery stores. Residents in the area struggle to sell their properties and report avoiding outdoor events in their yards. At the same time, the animals themselves are harmed; some are poisoned, run over, or shot by citizens taking the law into their own hands, with a baboon recently shot in the chest.
"Building a fence alone will not solve the problem. There is not enough food for the baboons behind the proposed southern fencing area, and they will simply continue to move to the next low-lying area where the fence ends," explained behavioral ecologist Justin O'Riain from the University of Cape Town.
He added that the current management program costs the city about 20 million rand every year and a half, and continuing to pump funds into it will leave the city in the exact same situation a decade from now.
The baboon crisis in the region has been steadily worsening since the 2000s, when the municipality halted population culling due to public pressure. A recent census indicates a surge of about a third in the number of individuals on the peninsula since 2000, currently standing at close to 500 baboons across 12 different troops.
Finding a Balance
Jocelyn Mormile of the Baboon Matters Trust noted that the animals, trapped between Table Mountain National Park and urban development, are drawn to low-lying areas in search of water and vegetation. According to her, the original plan was softened and reduced from the removal of four troops to just two, in order to test whether the remaining troops can successfully adapt to the available territory.
