The new action plan for baboons on the Cape Peninsula, which represents a major break from past management of the troops, has many positive elements but is not problem-free.
This is the reaction of key parties on Thursday after the release of the plan.
The Cape Peninsula Baboon Management Joint Task Team presented the Baboon Strategic Management Plan — which includes a new sanctuary near Cape Point, patrolled fencing, tighter waste management, population control without culling, and new and stricter bylaws — to the Cape Peninsula Baboon Advisory Group.
University of Cape Town professor Justin O’Riain, director of the Institute for Communities and Wildlife in Africa, said the action plan read as a “compromise born of broad consultation”, both formal and informal. UCT research informed the expert panel developing the plan.
O’Riain said the action plan invested in the “non-lethal option of fencing in the form of an enclosed sanctuary in the south [near Cape Point] and a strategic barrier in the north”.
The plan rejected culling despite “strong financial, practical and ethical arguments” supporting it for the removal of select troops, he said.
“The stated goals of a healthy, sustainable population with improved welfare align with international practice as do the proposed methods.”
Putting up fencing and establishing a sanctuary for the Waterfall and Seaforth troops are central to the action plan and drew a mixed response. The Cape of Good Hope SPCA supports the northern strategic fencing initiative — which will restrict baboon movement to south of the fence — but it opposes the sanctuary.
We also support non-lethal population control measures as proactive, humane means of maintaining a sustainable population balance.
— Belinda Abraham, Cape of Good Hope SPCA
“[The fencing initiative] offers a viable and welfare-conscious method to prevent further northward expansion of troops into urban areas,” said SPCA communications officer Belinda Abraham.
This could be an effective long-term measure to reduce human-baboon conflict while protecting both wildlife and residents, she said.
The plan does not rule out humane euthanasia for members of the CT1 and CT2 troops however.
“Any baboon that breaches the fence or moves [north] over Constantia Nek, apart from dispersing males, will be humanely euthanised,” it stated.
Designing a fence that doesn’t harm the movement of other wildlife and making sure there is enough investment to maintain and manage baboon movements along this fence will influence its success, the parties noted.
Better waste control, new bylaws and penalties would help keep baboons away from urban areas, reducing property damage and promoting peaceful coexistence, the SPCA said.
Abraham said it supports the decision to limit the population guided by scientific evidence “given the challenges of a growing baboon population on the peninsula with limited natural foraging areas”.
“We also support non-lethal population control measures as proactive, humane means of maintaining a sustainable population balance.”
The Baboon Matters Trust, Baboons of the South and Baboon Management Western Cape have no comment on the latest action plan at this stage, said primates’ rights advocate Jenni Trethowan. “They, however, will hold the authorities accountable in terms of the records in the high court order dated December 6 2024.”
The concept of a sanctuary for healthy free-ranging baboons has been rejected by the NSPCA. “Permanent captivity of healthy, free-ranging baboons, particularly those not in need of rehabilitation or medical intervention, does not serve conservation or welfare objectives.
“Such an approach would likely result in long-term psychological distress, social disruption and behavioural abnormalities,” said the animal rights organisation.
O’Riain said the Waterfall troop had “revealed a clear preference for human-modified land over natural and human-derived food over natural” in previous research with them.
In his view a sanctuary provides the habituated troops a safe human-modified landscape with adequate food and none of the threats of urban areas, offering a long-term solution to the damage that residents have experienced.
Simon’s Town resident Peter Willis, who has been involved with baboon management, said the task team had made “several good strategic choices” of different management for different terrain.
Avoiding the contentious issue of culling by proposing a sanctuary was a neat solution, he said.
“There will be some people on the other side of the spectrum who will say, what a waste of money, these baboons are just going to be in a retirement home … but then what else do you do? You can’t translocate them to the Karoo.”
The SPCA said only time would tell how well the action plan works, but it was “extremely hopeful” that it would lessen conflict and would continue collaborating with the Cape Peninsula Baboon Management Joint Task Team.
The City of Cape Town, SANParks and CapeNature lead the task team.
The welfare of the Peninsula baboons has “declined alarmingly” since 2020 as they were allowed to spend more time in urban areas, said O’Riain.
“This plan guarantees their place on the mountains and foothills for the foreseeable future but with improved health and welfare,” he said, commending the City of Cape Town plan to manage wildlife on its doorstep.
“Our research group strongly supports plans that champion animal welfare and sustainability.”
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