The baboons are doomed, and welfare groups just missed the last chance to save them

I have seen how quickly baboon monitors can move the entire Waterfall baboon troop to the top of the mountain above Simon’s Town and how effectively they can keep them there, out of town. I have seen monitors keep these baboons within the fenced grounds of the naval depot at the South African Naval Armament Depot (Sanad). And I have seen those same herding skills used to guide the baboons to the soccer field, where food was scattered and placed inside the traps.

For the first time, I have seen managers up on the mountain with the baboons. I have seen the Navy, the Cape Baboon Partnership, NCC, NGOs, vets and Metro Police share resources. I have seen film crews commissioned to record the capture. I would have liked the public to see what I saw on the mountain in the past few weeks. When the monitors kept the baboons out of town, I watched a wild troop behaving naturally, living its complex social life and playing its part in the mountain ecosystem. I saw a troop worth conserving.

I have seen the authorities obtain permits, meet environmental requirements, make arrangements with the Navy and overcome considerable public opposition. When we proposed a fence above Simon’s Town, these were presented to us as major obstacles. We were told the City could not spend money on land it did not own. Yet when the authorities wanted a sanctuary, they were prepared to plan the first enclosure on privately owned land on Plateau Road.

They went on to fund a R10-million centre at Kogelfontein. A R6-million fence above Simon’s Town had seemed out of reach, even when a private donor offered to cover the cost.

I keep coming back to one question. What could those monitors have achieved if they had been given that same backing to keep the baboons on the mountain?

I have seen ordinary people offer what they could, immediately and without strings attached. One person drew on their home bond to pay for filming the Waterfall troop in the wild, so people could see what we stand to lose. Another quiet, unassuming person offered R6-million, my estimate for the materials and labour needed to build the fence along the firebreak. The Joint Task Team (JTT) turned down the fencing proposal.

Some animal welfare organisations did come forward. Humane World for Animals South Africa asked for a pause, Animal Survival International indicated its willingness to participate and the EMS Foundation discussed a contribution. In the end, though, the organisations did not come to the City with a firm, funded offer for work on the ground. Such an offer could have given the authorities a way to meet their objectives while keeping the baboons wild.

There were four things the organisations could have offered to do. They could have built the 3.8km fence along the Simon’s Town firebreak and a fence around the Signal School. At Sanad, they could have replaced the razor wire with an electric fence apron. At Kommetjie, they could have modified the recently erected fence to make it baboon-proof. Under the Action Plan, the Kommetjie troop is the next at risk of removal, which in its case means killing the whole troop. A working fence there would have immediately demonstrated how effective fencing could be and helped save other troops facing removal.

The opportunity had never been clearer. For three troops, the benefit was as concrete as it gets. Eighty-eight baboons could go on living in the wild. The urgency had never been clearer either.

I believe the welfare organisations needed to set aside a R50-million fund to back this work and approach the City together. They could have said: “We want to work with you to solve this problem. We will build or upgrade all four fences if you put the removal of the Waterfall and Seaforth troops on hold until we can see whether the fences succeed or fail.” Using twice the cost of materials as my basis, I estimated the four fencing projects would cost R10-million.

If welfare organisations were unwilling to talk to one another and work together under these circumstances, I find it hard to imagine when they ever would. Their donors had left money to save wild animals in exactly this kind of situation. Money will be spent on court cases, petitions and campaigns, and on consultants and lawyers. Here was an opportunity to put that money into work on the ground whose results we could verify. Three troops, 88 animals, could have remained wild. Demonstrating that the fences worked could have helped save thousands more.

If those funding animal welfare could not work together and commit the money when the continued existence of three wild troops was so clearly at stake, I struggle to see when it will ever happen.

This was perhaps the last opportunity for welfare organisations to gain a meaningful seat at the table and help decide how to keep baboons on the Peninsula. For me, 13 November marked the end of that opportunity. A lack of courage, engagement and cooperation meant that, by the time capture began, what we had were letters to the Joint Task Team and meetings with contacts.

What I had hoped to see was a wider group of organisations putting firm funding behind work on the ground in Simon’s Town and Kommetjie.

Deadly precedent

I remember why baboon monitoring began. The original Slangkop troop was culled in Kommetjie in 1990. People who wanted a different future for baboons helped establish the baboon monitoring programme. Today’s Action Plan looks back at the removal of whole troops from Kalk Bay, Chapman’s Peak and the City Bowl and describes whole-troop removal as “long-term success in mitigating baboon-human conflict”. More than 30 years later, those places still have no resident troops. That is the precedent being invoked for Simon’s Town.

I have watched the Waterfall baboons forage on the mountainside and settle on the cliffs above Sanad to sleep. Now I am watching them being taken to a small camp where they are to spend the rest of their lives. As the years pass, they will lose their companions one by one. The males will have no opportunity to leave their natal troop. There will be no young born into the troop to take the place of those who die, and none of the social life that has always centred on those young. The Action Plan’s own appendix says that moving baboons into permanent captivity “does not contribute to species survival or biodiversity”.

In the past week, I stood on that mountain and watched the monitors do exactly what Simon’s Town needed them to do. I saw the focus, preparation and energy the Cape Baboon Partnership brought to managing the operation. The monitors kept the baboons out of town. Before the capture began, the Waterfall troop was still there on the mountain, living wild. I wish everyone watching and participating in the capture could have seen that too. DM