Review – “Nature on our doorstep- A day out at Cape Point”
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Written by Russell Hepworth on 25 July 2011
Following my post last week about the birth of a Mountain Zebra in the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve, at Cape Point, we decided to take a family day out and see if we could find it. Despite knowing the general area that the herd was located we had no luck, however, it was a wildlife feast.
A baboon encounter well before arriving at Cape Point
After a recent trip to Durban my daughter (who is two and a half) is mad about monkeys and so she was delighted that a troop was taking life easy on the road to Cape Point, just after Millers Point, [approximately 5km south of Boulders Beach].
Baboons are technically not monkeys, and nor are they apes; to my daughter they are hilarious. The baboons on the Cape Point Peninsula are actually called Chacma baboons. There are several troops between Table Mountain and Cape Point, with most of them monitored continually by baboon monitors. When driving along the Cape Point Peninsula be aware of the monitors as part of their job is to ensure the baboons cross roads safely. They are also a great way of knowing that baboons are in the area.
Now, baboons are getting a bad reputation of late, with many photos and videos of them behaving badly, particularly around cars. However, I have to say that this extended troop were about as interested in us as they were in nuclear physics (having said that, who knows what advanced mathematics they are contemplating while they pick succulent shoots out of the ground). There is an ongoing debate in the Cape Point Peninsula area regarding having baboons as neighbours with some people advocating removing them. Apart from the potentially devastating effect this could have on the fynbos what a terrible loss they would be from this area of such natural beauty. We could have watched them all day. The problem isn’t the baboons but the ignorance and arrogance of the people who are around them.
They left us well alone, actually ignored us. We were respectful of them being wild animals and did nothing to try and interact with them, staying at a good distance and not displaying anything that would suggest we had food. I wonder how many incidents of ‘baboon terrorism’ are as a result of tourists trying to get better photographs by baiting the animals with food?
Despite being royally entertained by particularly the juveniles we had other places to go and so left the baboons to their foraging and went on to Cape Point.
Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve and Cape Point
I have to say that we didn’t pick the best day of the month for our trip. After seemingly endless warm sunny days with little or no wind, we managed to go with a howling southeaster blowing of the ocean. At times it was difficult to open and close the car door- in certain exposed areas it was difficult to stand up, and there was a constant dampness in the air, probably as a result of the spray from the sea.
We first headed off towards the west coast as we have seen zebras in that area before- not today. Whilst our primary targets were not to be seen we were rewarded with a herd of bontebok, sheltering in a rocky koppe. (Sorry, the photos were not very good, they were a long way away and I was having difficulty holding the camera steady in the high winds.)
Bontebok are easy to identify, though like many other distinctive African animals, are deceptively difficult to spot in the bush. They have long white faces, which are very square at the mouth, and have white rears. Occurring in herds of up to 25 individuals they tend to feed mainly on grass.
Ostriches and Dassies
Then it was of to the Cape of Good Hope, which is to the north west of Cape Point. We have also seen zebra in this area before, and we knew that there would be ostrich there.
I have a suspicion that the ostrich at the Cape of Good Hope are actually nailed to the floor, or at least tethered because they are always there. They are also so used to people that they just ignore you, though, with all wild animals you should never get too close. These are massive animals with very powerful legs; a kick from an ostrich could very easily kill you, certainly break bones.
The two we saw were both females, which are a drab brown in colour, unlike males which are the more commonly conception of what an ostrich looks like. When you look at ostriches it is easy to imagine that birds evolved from dinosaurs.
And from the biggest bird in the world to the smallest elephant…
Well, not quite, but apparently possibly so. The Cape of Good Hope is my favorite place for seeing Dassies [rock hyrax]- an odd little rodent type fur-ball that live in rocky, mountainous parts of the Cape Point Peninsula (and beyond). They are so used to people that you would be hard pressed to get one to move for you. Again, they are wild animals, so shouldn’t be touched (they have massive teeth that I could imagine removing a huge chunk of finger- being ambivalent is one thing, being manhandled is something else).
It would need some pathological condition not to find Dassies ‘cute’. Looking like large guinea pigs they are actually not rodents. Genetically they are a relative of the elephant! It sounds strange, and it could be my imagination, but if you look at the nose shape, it looks a lot like the end of an elephant’s trunk.
My daughter was in fluffy heaven and I got some great photos.
In need of amenities we headed to the Cape Point parking area. While there we saw the negative side of baboon behavior. A young adult male was wandering through the main parking lot trying to steal food of unsuspecting tourists. He was obviously used to success, though it seems that today he came up short and we saw him sat on a rock later on, away from the main area. Showing no fear of humans, I could easily see him turning nasty. The sad thing is that the tourists that create this problem probably don’t see anything wrong in what they are doing. When confronted in this way, do not try and fight the baboon, get children away from the animal and remember that you are three times his size- despite him having the huge teeth. Showing fear will make you an easy target, but confrontation may cause the baboon to fight its corner. Stay calm, don’t fight over a candy bar and back away.
Surprisingly the lower part of the Cape Point Peninsula was sheltered from the wind, although we did not climb to the top. It really does feel like the end of the world; and, although it is not the southern tip of Africa it is much more dramatic than Cape Agulhas. Despite now being a tourist Mecca with a tarred road all the way to the end, it is still an awe inspiring place, especially on days when the southeaster is blowing hard and waves are crashing over rocks. Imagine trying to sail a square rigger around the cape in a storm? I have done it a few times in a luxury cruise liner that tramped across the north Atlantic in the middle of December, and nothing put the crew on full alert like a trip around the Cape Point.
We were asked a ranger where the zebra were and he pointed us back to Olifantsbos and whilst we did go back for another look it was likely that they were in a part of the park that is closed to visitors.
Whilst we didn’t see what we set off to see, we did see plenty and we left feeling very privelaged to have such amazing natural beauty of Cape Point so close to where we live.
The life of a baboon
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The life of a baboon
May 31 2011 at 10:55am
By John Yeld – Cape Argus
A young baboon casts a quizzical look at UCT doctoral student Tali Hoffman, who has just completed her thesis on the peninsula’s baboon troops.
LOVE them, hate them… but it’s almost impossible to ignore the baboons of the Cape Peninsula. Surprisingly, perhaps, for an animal that has made newspaper headlines so often over decades, these baboons have not been comprehensively studied until quite recently.
But now, new research has produced fascinating empirical evidence about the local troops that disproves the claim, so often heard, that there are “too many” baboons on the peninsula and that the troops should therefore be culled.
More importantly, perhaps, this research also offers the most practical and effective methods of reducing human-baboon contact during which the animals invariably come off worst, often at the cost of severe injuries or maiming, or even death.
Much of this research has emerged in the PhD study of Tali Hoffman of UCT’s Baboon Research Unit, who studied the spatial ecology of the peninsula’s baboon troops through field tracking and the use of GPS satellite-tracking collars.
After three years’ field work, she had more than 25 000 GPS points to analyse, as well as numerous field observations from more than 40 assistants.
“My study aimed to provide data that could enhance the understanding of their landscape requirements and preferences, and thereby improve baboon management and conservation approaches, with the ultimate objective of achieving a sustainable baboon population that is not in conflict with its human neighbours,” she explained during a zoology post-graduate student seminar at the university last week.
Every time South Africans go to the polls, we’re subjected to an incredible degree of mystification that presents the secular act of voting as a sacred ritual and invests it with all kinds of magical powers that it manifestly lacks.
Hoffman found that the peninsula baboons displayed probably the most interesting and varied population dynamics of any primates anywhere in the world, perhaps matched only by one population of Japanese macaques (snow monkeys).
She says she always asks audiences at her various talks how many baboons they think live on the peninsula.
“Most pupils answer ‘A million!’ while adults usually say ‘Thousands’.”
But Hoffman and colleagues put the baboon population on the peninsula at just 475, living in troops that vary in size from 16 to 115 animals.
One of her critical findings is that there is no relationship between the size of a troop and the size of its home range or its average daily range.
The Kanonkop troop in the Cape Point area is probably the most “pristine” troop in the peninsula with the least interaction with humans and hence least access to human food. These 49 animals, which have a home range of 37km2 at a density of about 1.3/km2, move furthest and fastest during their daily foraging.
In contrast, the 16 baboons in the Red Hill troop spend nearly half their time in the Simon’s Town urban area, eating mostly human food. At a density of 10/km2, they travel the shortest distance at the slowest pace.
In Tokai, the 115 animals also have a tiny home range of 9km2 at a density of 12/km2. This is because more than 90 percent of this home range consists of alien vegetation – pine and eucalyptus plantations, and vineyards – that offers the troop an abundance of non-indigenous food sources in close proximity to suitable tree sleeping sites.
When baboons are able to easily source “unnatural” food like this, they are able to satisfy their nutritional needs more quickly, leaving them more social time and more time for rest. The age at which females first reproduce is lower and they have an increasing number of infants during their lifetimes, with obvious population implications.
The average population growth rate on the peninsula is 6 percent, but 8 percent in Tokai and just 3 percent in the far south (such as the Kanonkop troop).
So the first management implication is that it’s not baboon numbers that need to be controlled, but the animals’ access to certain habitats, Hoffman says.
This is confirmed by her estimates of how many baboons the peninsula can sustain.
Her “most generous” scenario assumes that only the urban areas are excluded from the animals’ access, while the “most conservative” estimate assumes the removal of all alien food sources such as vines and pine trees, as well as human food.
The “most generous” figure is 612 baboons and the “most conservative” 488. The “most realistic” figure Hoffman puts at 586.
“So even under the most stringent spatial restrictions, baboons can still not be considered over-abundant on the peninsula, and the current population is well within the carrying capacity of the landscape.
“So management should not be looking to control numbers, but at managing habitat access”
Unfortunately, baboons are “hard-wired” to seek out the most profitable foraging areas and, for various reasons – including the natural attributes of the landscape – these are nearly all at low altitude, she adds.
Of course, these are also the areas where human development has occurred, so they are where baboons now suffer their highest incidence of injury and mortality as they compete for this habitat.
“All space is not equal space for baboons,” Hoffman explains, which is why the high mountainous spine of the peninsula has never supported permanent baboon troops.
Because of the UCT research, authorities are now aware of the baboons’ home ranges, and these must be taken into account when considering any possible future land transformation, she adds.
Her research also reveals that more than half of the baboons sleep at roosting sites less than half a kilometre from the urban edge. If the troops are pushed by baboon monitors to roosting sites further than 500m, or at least one hour away, this will reduce the amount of time they are able to spend in urban areas where they are most vulnerable, says Hoffman.
“It would be a challenge to move them there, a big ask, but I think with the right kind of collaboration it could be done and it’s worth the effort.”
There are two major findings of Hoffman’s thesis. The first is that “unnatural” resources – like food from urban areas and artificial roosting sites – must be properly managed and secured so that baboons don’t have access to them.
“And the best means is electric fencing, and a particular kind of baboon-proof electric fencing, because if there’s a reward on the other side, baboons will go through just about anything.”
And the second major finding is that remaining areas of natural land suitable as baboon habitat on the peninsula must be conserved.
“All the results from my thesis point to this,” she says.
john.yeld@inl.co.za