Baboon fence coming soon

Baboon fence coming soon

Writer De Waal Steyn

Human Wildlife Solutions (HWS), who previously managed the virtual fence to keep baboons out of the Voëlklip area, has been appointed by the municipality to operate the programme in both Hermanus and Pringle Bay.

According to Liezl de Villiers, Senior Manager: Environmental Services of the Overstrand Munic ipality, they met with HWS last week to discuss the logistics and plan the implementation of the programme in the two areas.

“We met with the Pringle Bay Baboon Action Group first because this community has been running with its own baboon management programme for the past two years and it is there fore easier and faster to start there immediately by just adopting the existing programme. The virtual fence will not be implemented in Pringle Bay at this stage and we will only be making use of baboon monitors,” said De Villiers.

According to her, planning for the Hermanus area also started last week and it was decided to first deploy an area manager from HWS to monitor the population dynamics and movement of the Hermanus troop, including their interaction with the Voëlklip and Hamilton Russell troops on the western and eastern boundaries of the Hermanus troop.

“The HWS area manager will monitor the interaction of the Hermanus troop’s baboons amongst one another and how they move between the urban areas and their sleeping sites. He will also identify which animals need to be collared in order to effectively follow the movements of the animals and therefore successfully apply the virtual fence techniques,” she said.

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