By Esa Alexander.
Plans by city authorities in Cape Town, South Africa, to permanently cage around 60 chacma or Cape baboons have triggered a bitter dispute over whether wildlife that has adapted to city life should be confined, culled or allowed to coexist with residents.
The move, presented as an alternative to culling in the Simon’s Town district, has drawn fierce opposition from some residents and conservationists, who say confining wild baboons sets a dangerous precedent.
Male baboons in particular can be intimidating at a metre (3 feet) tall and weighing up to 45 kg (100 lb).
But Simon’s Town resident Sue-Anne Norton, who regularly feeds fruit to baboons visiting her home, sees southern Africa’s largest monkeys as neighbours rather than a threat.
“They’re not domestic animals. You cannot put them in a cage and you cannot put electric fencing around them because they will kill themselves trying to get out,” she said.
At a protest outside the planned enclosure site, demonstrators waved placards declaring Cape Town the “City of Chacma Torture” and carried makeshift cages containing stuffed toy baboons.
City officials see them differently. Accustomed to roaming large areas in search of food, chacma baboons are highly adaptable and have increasingly come into conflict with people as cities grow.
City officials argue that the animals’ welfare has already been compromised by their dependence on urban areas.
Gregg Oelofse, Cape Town’s coastal and environmental manager, said communities were coming into conflict with each other over baboons, and that “we see a very poor welfare outcome, poor ecological outcome”.
Animal welfare groups and activists say the root problem is urban encroachment rather than baboon behaviour, and that concerned residents should do more to secure their properties – which can cost up to 1% of the property’s value – and remove food sources.
“If you are living in an area where there is wildlife, then you need to live and coexist with the wildlife,” said Chad Cupido of the animal rights group Beauty Without Cruelty South Africa.