16 | NATURE 14
29 January 2020
Latest feedback on baboon management F
ollowing on the formulation and finalisation of its Strategic Baboon Management Plan, Overstrand Municipality appointed Human Wildlife Solutions (HWS) as a specialised service provider to manage and control baboons in the area.
For starters, HWS has been monitoring the Voëlklip troop in Hermanus and the Pringle Bay troop since the beginning of November 2019. In their report submitted at the end of the year, HWS claimed that both the Voëlklip and the Pringle Bay troops were kept out of the towns for over 98% of the time. Based on their observations, HWS also found that the Pringle Bay troop was probably more habituated to humans and had largely been kept out of town for the past few years with the aid of rangers employed by the local residents’ association. Their conclusion was that Pringle Bay’s baboons are more used to feeding out of town and, therefore, respond to management
much better than the Voëlklip troop, which has not been managed for many years and is addicted to human-derived foods. “Given that there is still a good abundance of fynbos forage available to both these troops of baboons on the mountains and valleys around town, they should be encouraged to continue feeding there without coming to town for a fix of sugar,” project manager Dr Phil Richardson said. “Here the residents of the urban areas can play a huge role in baboon management. Removing sweet-smelling fruit from their fruit trees before they ripen, closing doors and windows and securing waste so that it cannot be easily opened or torn apart will all reduce the rewards if the baboons do come to town. If there are no rewards readily available within the urban area, most baboons would rather not be paintballed or subjected to the scares of the virtual fence and stay out of town 100% of the time.
Baboon hotline: • The dedicated hotline number for reporting baboons in the Voëlkip area is 071 588 6540 • The Pringle Bay Baboon Hotline number is 079 431 5956 When to call: • To report baboons in the urban areas • To report baboons on your property • To report injuries of baboons • To report incidents of feeding or harming baboons Give details of: • Your name and address • The specific address or location where you last saw the baboon(s) • The number of baboons seen • What the baboons were doing (e.g. foraging on the side of the road/ raiding a bin/ entering a house) • Take note if you see any ear tags or collars on the baboon(s), and what colour the ear tag is • Whether the baboon is in the house/ garden or in the road Additional useful information: • Try to note if it was a male or female baboon • If the baboon raided a house, note whether there were people in the house or not • Describe how the baboon got into the house • If you can no longer see the baboon, how long ago did you see it (timeframe) – please try to report baboons in the urban area immediately • If you are reporting an injury, try to assess whether the baboon is an adult or a juvenile and what body part is injured and whether the behaviour of the baboon appears normal (or not) • If you are reporting a feeding or harming incident, please try to take a video of the incident and gather as much information as you can, pictures of the person(s) and/or vehicle(s) involved, time, date and place. This information will be passed on to CapeNature to investigate. When NOT to call the hotline numbers: • To complain about municipal issues and to make queries about baboon management. Please contact the Municipality’s environmental management services on 028 316 8249.
New series on ‘The seven ages of Hermanus’ “As far as I know, there is no chronological history of Hermanus available. There are many ‘histories’ on specific subjects and lots of ‘stories’ about people and events. But, no history in the good, old-fashioned sense,” says local historian, Dr Robin Lee. This is the gap that Dr Lee is trying to fill. He has written a new series of articles on ‘The seven ages of Hermanus’, which will be published over the coming months in The Village NEWS. The first article appears on page 15. “My research has led me to define seven phases of our history, and I will try to explain each of these in a separate article. I will also tell how one ‘age’ links to another to make a joined-up story,” he says. Here is an outline of the series and the topics to be discussed in the articles: Article One: The history of the Hermanus area 100 000 BCE to 1 600 CE: starts with Klip Kop Cave on Hoy’s Koppie, describes the life of early humans, and deals with the San and Khoekhoen. Article Two: The history of our area under the Dutch East India Company from 1652 to 1795: deals with the Trekboers pushing forward the boundaries of the Cape settlement, the allocation of farms in what will become the Overstrand and the first house built in Hermanus. Article Three: Rule by the British from 1795 to 1910: deals with consequences of the Anglicisation policy, changes in forms of land ownership, the Cape as a colony, the introduction of a capitalist economy, and the population mix of early Hermanus. Article Four: Hermanus the fishing village, 1855 to 1950: starts with the establishment of Hermanuspietersfontein, analyses the growth of the fishing industry, describes notable personalities involved, ‘serial over-fishing’ and the demise of fisheries. Article Five: The growth of tourism from 1900 to 1970: describes the growth of the hotel industry in Hermanus, with lots of personalities and incidents, the nature and growth of holiday homes and the realisation that tourism is the town’s economic base. Article Six: The apartheid era: the imposition of a nationalist ideology on a seaside resort, 1950 to 1994: close focus on Hermanus, how laws were applied, and the attitudes of townspeople and consequences of segregation, still with us today. Article Seven: Hermanus in 2020: analysis of the town’s economy today, how this affects the population of Hermanus, the rise of the retirement population, first signs of the genuine local productive economy in abalone farming and wine estates. What tourism strategy should we follow in the future?
