SHARE WITH US: Baboons on your radar: What do you really know?

Maverick Earth

A deep-dive series examines Cape Town’s escalating baboon conflict from the perspectives of authorities, scientists, residents, conservationists and the baboons themselves.

30 Sep 2026

A juvenile baboon from the Seaforth troop, with False Bay in the background. (Photo: Joyrene Kramer)

On the Cape Peninsula, the issue of free-ranging baboons invading parts of the
city precincts as the city pushes up into their home range has escalated into
a war zone. Claims of home invasions, baboons being shot and dogs set on
them. It’s been getting nastier and nastier.

A hundred years ago they were legally classed as vermin and shot on
sight. If I remember, there was a reward system. These days, given the
massive damage humans have been doing to wildlife – and with much more
enlightened legal protection (well, mostly) – other arrangements have to
be made to deal with the issue.

With this in mind, Maverick Earth decided to do a near-forensic deep
dive into the whole issue and the imminent outcome. We’re giving every
side space to state their case without anyone being given a yellow card
– until the end. It’s going to be quite a wild ride and looks like this:

The position of:

• The City, SANParks and Cape Nature.

• Baboon scientists who don’t always agree

• People and NGOs trying to protect baboons

• The builders of a camp to detain troops for life

• The view of Jane the baboon

We’re going to run a little experiment, because we trust your judgement as thoughtful readers.

Before we start running the series on Monday, 5 October, we’d like you to tell us: Do you understand the baboon conflict well enough to have an informed view? We’ll ask you the same question after you’ve read the series.

The experiment is really to see if we’re doing our job of providing you with information to make good choices.

Take a moment to help us remain the best news platform in the country.

What questions do you have about the baboon conflict? Tell us in the comments below. DM

• Maverick Earth

• baboons
• city of cape town
• SANParks
• Cape Nature

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