South African town divided over plan to fence in baboons

They're scrambling across buildings, trying to force their way through windows and doors, and sometimes clashing with residents' dogs.

Around 60 chacma baboons, divided into two groups known as troops, have made the coastal town near Cape Town part of their daily routine.

They come down from the surrounding mountains looking for food, before returning to the hills to sleep at night.

But residents say the animals can cause serious damage when they manage to get inside.

Some homeowners have installed special locks and barriers to keep them out.

Resident Peter Willis says: “We’ve had two or three incidents where they’ve broken into the house. Once while we weren’t here and someone had left a window open, and they made an absolute, absolute mess of the inside of the house. Peanut butter, jam, broken jars, paw prints all over the ceiling, and ripped all the curtains, and so on, a real devastation. They got high on whatever they were eating and ran amok. So we know what it’s like; it took two days to clean, and get rid of the smell, and so on.”

Willis has also come face-to-face with a large male baboon sitting on his kitchen counter.

The animal opened his fridge before escaping with a bag of biscuits after Willis threw a tin at it.

After 15 years of dealing with baboons entering residential areas, Willis supports a plan to remove the two troops from Simon's Town.

City officials say the animals have become used to finding food in homes and rubbish bins, and are increasingly difficult to keep away.

Cape Town already employs baboon monitors who use paintball guns and loud, non-lethal devices to scare them away from residential areas.

But authorities say the current approach is not working well enough in Simon's Town.

They have decided to relocate the two troops to specially built enclosures near Scarborough, where they would be kept behind electric fences under full-time care.

Each enclosure would cover between about two and three-and-a-half hectares.

Male baboons would also be sterilised, preventing the animals from reproducing and allowing the troops to die out naturally over an estimated 20 to 30 years.

Officials say they considered releasing the baboons into other wild habitats, but concluded that doing so could harm both the animals and the ecosystems receiving them.

Gregg Oelofse, a member of the Cape Peninsula Baboon Management Joint Task Team, says: “We looked at could we translocate them to re-wild them somewhere else, and that was ruled out very quickly as a very poor ecological decision, one with poor welfare outcomes, and certainly one that isn’t supported by any conservation backing in terms of that kind of approach. The second option is what is usually done, which is culling those troops, or culling those animals. So, if there isn’t available habitat for wildlife, wildlife is usually culled, removed from that space."

"And we chose in this case not to pursue that with these two particular troops as we felt there was one last alternative that we should opt for and that was to create purpose-built semi-wild enclosures where these two troops could live out the remainder of their lives under full-time care and with the highest possible welfare that we could create.”

Simon's Town, which is home to around 8,000 people, is divided over the fate of its baboons.

Some residents say the animals are causing too much damage and posing risks to people and pets.

Others argue that baboons belong in the area and should be able to move freely between the mountains and surrounding neighbourhoods.

The disagreements have spilled onto social media and sometimes into real-life confrontations.

And the city's decision to move the animals has only intensified the dispute.

Protesters gathered outside the enclosures near Scarborough, with some carrying toy baboons inside makeshift cages.

Animal welfare campaigners are concerned the baboons could injure themselves trying to escape and object to keeping them confined for the rest of their lives.

Shirley Windell, a baboon enclosure protester, says: “I’m totally against them being caged, vasectomised, and confined for the rest of their lives. I believe that they were here first and, yes, we have a place here as well, however, coexistence is what is required. Most of this has been precipitated by people’s inability to manage their kitchen waste.”

Campaigners have promised to peacefully oppose the relocation.

But the problem stretches beyond Simon's Town.

Cape Town is one of the few major cities in the world where free-ranging baboons still live close to residential areas.

Across the Cape Peninsula, nearly 500 baboons, belonging to around a dozen troops, regularly move into urban neighbourhoods.

The animals are highly intelligent and can learn how to enter buildings, including by removing roof tiles or opening doors.

Their growing dependence on food taken from people also exposes them to dangers including traffic, dog attacks and poisoning.

Some residents have resorted to confronting the animals themselves, leading to further disputes with wildlife activists.

Primatologist David Gaynor believes Simon's Town has another option.

He wants authorities to install fencing along a firebreak, which is a cleared strip of land between the mountain and residential areas designed to slow the spread of wildfires.

“The problem with dealing with human-wildlife conflict is actually quite simple. It’s how we become more effective at humanely and effectively keeping baboons out of residential areas. This is the point where the authorities and I agree - is that the fences along the firebreaks are the most effective, cost-effective and effective, way of keeping baboons out of residential areas. Where we differ is their decision not to do this in Simon’s Town. Simon’s Town, you’ve got eight kilometres of border with the mountain. Very hard to control, yet you have a fire break there. If you have a fence along the fire break, you immediately reduce the problem to stopping the baboons at 50 metres on the southern end, and 50 metres on the northern end,” he says.

City officials say that approach wouldn't work in Simon's Town, but that similar fencing is planned for other neighbourhoods.

The baboons are native to southern Africa and feed naturally on plants, roots, fruit and insects.

Around Cape Town, they forage among the low-growing shrubs and other vegetation called fynbos.

Their habitat includes parts of Table Mountain National Park, which extends close to residential neighbourhoods.

The dispute over how to protect both the baboons and the people living alongside them, continues.