About The BMT and Baboon Monitors

There have always been baboons over most of southern Africa, including the southern peninsula. In recent years there has been a steady increase in the number of conflicts between man and baboons, the reasons for the conflicts are fairly easy to understand:

• Rapid urbanisation
• Easily accessible food within the villages
• "Human" food has a far higher nutritional content - in other words if a baboon takes half a loaf of bread from a dustbin, he can then rest for the remainder of the day - as opposed to spend the entire day foraging in the nutritionally poor fynbos.
• Proximity and placement of sleep-sites. All too often the pine stands are situated right on the boarders of many villages. The baboons often choose to sleep in the pine trees - this means that they can enter the villages from the sleep-sites very easily before the monitors come on duty - or go to their preferred sleep sites after the monitors go off duty, either way the sleep-sites does influence the movement of baboons.

In 1998 the Baboon Management Team (comprising The Cape Town Unicity, the South African National Parks and Cape Nature Conservation, in conjunction with affected residential groups and NGO's) was formed. The BMT was faced with the following options in dealing with the conflictual situation:

1. Elimination of all baboons
2. Relocation of baboons
3. Management of baboons

The only viable option is that of management

The following aspects have been considered in managing the baboon issues:

1. Improved Waste Management
2. Making villages less attractive to baboons - e.g. reduction of available food such as fruiting trees and shrubs, not feeding guineafowl or porcupines, no compost heaps etc.
3. Residential responsibility such as containing the dustbins, installing appropriate baboon proof burglar bars etc
4. Baboon Monitors.

Baboon Monitors have proved the most successful way in reducing the conflicts - it has been proved that with Baboon Monitors there is an overall reduction of 85% in the time baboons spend in villages. Whilst the Baboon Monitors have been very successful - they are not the solution to the problem and residents must take greater responsibility in reducing the overall attractions for baboons in the villages.

The Baboon Monitor Project is incredibly underfunded and each year sees another funding crisis as minimal budgets are stretched beyond all possibility in order to extend the project time as long as possible.

Currently there are Baboon Monitors managing the following troops:

• The Kommetjie Troop (current alpha male is Harry)ranging between Kommetjie, Ocean View, lmhoffs Gift, Scarborough, Da Gama Park, Welcome Glen.
• The Da Gama Troop (current alpha male is Peter, recently taken over from George) - ranging from Da Gama Park, Welcome Glen, Glen Cairn Heights, Ocean View
• Scarborough Troop (William and Split-Lip vie for dominance resulting in splits in this troop) - ranging from the Cape of Good Hope Reserve to Scarborough and Misty Cliffs.
• Tokai Troop - (current alpha male of the small troop is John Travolta) - ranging from the Tokai Forest, Zwaanswyk Road to the wine farms and Constantia.
There are no Baboon Monitors on the following troops:

1. Murdoch Valley
2. Simonstown
3. Plateau Road
4. The large Tokai Troop

If you are a resident of the above listed areas please understand that Baboon Matters cannot supply Baboon Monitors or any management as there simply is no budget for this.

If you are experiencing difficulties with baboons in these areas and would like to see appropriate budgets allocated for management, we suggest you send letters to the following authorities: