Living with baboons: How to make life easier georgeherald.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from georgeherald.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Mayoral committee member for spatial planning and environment Marian Nieuwoudt said her department was “concerned and appalled” at the incident. The city’s baboon population has grown from 350 in 2009 to 430 this year. The baboons have no natural predators in the Cape Peninsula, where leopards or lions no longer roam.
In April, the city euthanised a male baboon which had started leading a splinter group of baboons from the Smitswinkel Bay troop to raids on homes in Murdoch Valley near Simon s Town.
This was after the city said all other methods of deterring the male had failed and that he was teaching females and their offspring his renegade ways, leading to conflict with people.
Getty Images
A male juvenile baboon was killed last Thursday.
The City of Cape Town believes baboons are at risk if rangers can t use paintball markers to keep them out of urban areas.
The National Council of Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA) has withdrawn its support for the use of paintball guns to shoot primates, after a juvenile baboon was killed in Simon s Town.
The City of Cape Town maintains the use of paintball markers assists in keeping baboons out of harm s way by diverting them from urban areas.
However, the NSPCA has rejected the method after a juvenile male baboon was found dead in the garden of a Simon s Town resident.
City says paintball markers needed to keep baboons safe after baboon shot dead
13 May 2021 9:47 AM
Share This:
The City of Cape Town says baboons are at a greater risk of death and injury if rangers can t use paintball markers to keep them out of urban areas.
This comes after a juvenile male baboon was reportedly killed with a pellet gun in Simonâs Town last week Thursday.
The City says the killing of the juvenile male baboon from the Waterfall Troop demonstrates why keeping baboons out of urban areas is crucial.
In a statement, the City maintains that the use of paintball markers helps keep baboons out of harm s way by averting them from urban areas.