Marauding baboons ‘out of control’ in South Africa’s Cape Town: US expert

 

 Photograph by: Schalk van Zuydam , AP Photo
A baboon on top of a family home in Scarborough situated on the outskirts of the city of Cape Town, South Africa, Tuesday, July 24, 2012. 

An eminent American expert on primates says baboons are out of control on Africas southernmost tip because animal rights supporters have thwarted efforts to keep hundreds of them in check. 

Kenya-based U.S. anthropologist Shirley Strum said Tuesday troops of baboons are roaming freely in parts of urban Cape Town and surrounding districts. Some even slept on the roofs of buildings.

In an open letter to the Cape Times newspaper, Strum said after visiting the Cape peninsula that she believed it may already be too late for fencing or other control measures to succeed, although that remains “the only option now, short of eliminating most or all of the baboons.”


Strum, who is also a professor at the University of California San Diego, said the baboons are raiding homes and restaurants, using their typical “ingenuity and adaptability.”

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Marauding baboons ‘out of control’ in South Africa’s Cape Town: US expert