Baboons – Croc and shark attacks make headlines
With the latest ordeal concerning baboon hunters in Knysna, concerned citizens have taken to social media to air their concerns with regards to protocols being implemented by local municipalities and Cape Nature.
What is it about the sensationalism of being attacked by a wild animal?
There are relatively very, very few attacks on people by wild animals, yet, when a shark or a croc, for example, do so the headlines fly around the world as if we all had something to worry about. Perhaps it is a tug at our primordial psyche, back to the days when we lived in caves and indeed, wild animals were an actual threat. And so it is with baboons.
Baboons are wild animals, ‘they are dangerous, they will kill our children, eat our pets’ scream the media. Even the latest piece in the Overstrand Herald, by, once again, an anonymous writer who apparently does not have the courage of his or her convictions to put their name to the piece.
It states ‘…the very aggressive baboon troops in Betty’s Bay…’. No one has been bitten, nor in Rooiels in 50 years where the baboons are very often in and around the villager’s homes.
The piece totally fails to mention that Dave Gaynor (the independent assessor contracted to look at Betty’s Bay baboon management) stated clearly that his child is more likely to be bitten by their family dog than a baboon.
The recent ‘dog attacks’ in Jock’s Bay so often quoted were a defensive action of the baboons after the dog attacked the baboons. The baboon did not ‘carry’ the dog several meters as HWS would have you believe but was dragged by it as the dog refused to let go!
Fear-mongering is rife and avoids the real issues and solutions. Our own dog has now been attacked 3 times (!!) on the beach by dogs off leads, despite being on a lead herself! Yes, we suffered high vet bills too. No headlines though.
Dave Gaynor goes on to say categorically that the current strategy of monitoring is not working! The infamous virtual fence was hailed as the answer to garner the contract by HWS with the OM in the first place. It was used as the very reason for the contract to have deviated so that no tender was required. It has been used in Betty’s Bay to abject failure and now at least twice in Kleinmond where it was previously deemed an absolute winner.
Wrong! Baboons are still coming down to the urban area. It has not worked. What it does do effectively is to increase the splintering of the troop but not much else. Can HWS continue to justify the contract and its methods?
Kleinmond is probably having fewer house entries than Betty’s Bay but, with a higher crime level in KM, folks are more security-aware.
‘Keyboard warriors’ are not helpful unless verifiable facts are used. We, the community, have to put our heads together in a proactive, solution-based manner. Time to stop thinking like cavemen.
~ Pete Oxford
Source: Extracted from the Baboon Forum – Garden Route, WC Facebook group.