Before our ancestors arrived, the Khoi-San co-existed with wild animals peacefully. Although much has changed today, the message that we are one species amongst all others, and not one species above all others, is relevant if we want to change the damaging path we are heading down…
Category: FOR RESIDENTS – HOW TO LIVE WITH OUR WILD PRIMATE NEIGHBORS
Freedom – Just Another Word for Nothing Left to Lose
A Glimpse into the Plight of The Persecuted Baboon and Monkey Populations in South Africa ABOVE – SOME OF THE SPECIES PERSECUTED IN SOUTH AFRICA DUE TO HUMAN/WILDLIFE CONFLICT: Comments on the Primate Populations in the Western Cape The following comments are based on my experience as someone who works towards co-existence between residents, the…
My Friends the Baboons
During the summer of 2006, I met a wild troop of baboons while carrying an orphaned baby baboon called Rhiannon around the property we rented in The Crags. Bud, the current alpha, had not joined this group yet and all I recall about the alpha male – at the time – was his apparent outrage…
Monkeys Raiding your Home – is it Always About Food?
More often than not, the phone calls I get from residents needing help with monkeys entering their homes, reveal a tragic pattern. The monkeys in question visit in pairs or alone, have no troop, and this sometimes continues for years. What this suggests is that monkey populations in this area are in big trouble. In…
Franco – A Sad Ending.
“They tried to make me go to rehab and I said no, no no!” “Can you take over my monkey?” I dread those words whenever I hear them from a person unable to cope any longer with the monkey they have nurtured as a house pet. Unable to turn away from these situations, knowing the…
Farmers vs Wildlife – The Crags
The Crags is an agricultural area bordering the Tsitsikamma National Park. There are no fences preventing wildlife from wandering on to agricultural land where they are vulnerable to dying tortuous deaths in poachers traps, being shot by local farmers and residents or being electrocuted on pylons.Wild primates are attracted by compost heaps, garbage, vegetable gardens,…
“Single” Males – the vulnerable steps towards adulthood.
Kennedy – one of our sub-adult orphans – left his troop two months ago to find a new one. Thankfully, he’d moved off in the direction of the gorge which is a wild area uninhabited by humans. Gun toting residents who illegally shoot primates are common in this area according to local eye witnesses and we…
Baboon or monkey proofing your home.
It’s not that I can easily live with an aesthetically, unappealling home. I’m not sure any artist can. But when it comes to the necessity of sharing a territory with wild animals as many of us do, along with the choice, comes tolerance and compromise. If we don’t excercise those two options and choose instead…
My neighboring baboons – behaviour and power struggles.
The above illustrates the balanced, healthy approach that our neighboring baboons here have towards humans. This same baboon – when approached by a stranger getting ouf of a vehicle on this road, runs away as soon as the person opens the car door. (See the video clip below for an illustration of rank between troop…
Darwin Primate Group 