Wildlife Conservation South Africa Project #37780

Stop Killing Baboons!

by Baboon Matters Trust

Project Report | Jun 24, 2019
Stop Killing Baboons - June 2019

By Jenni Trethowan | Founder member

2019 has not been "kind" to baboons! It seems that in the Western Cape we have seen a sharp increase in numbers of baboons killed. Earlier this year the Overstrand region suffered massive wild fires that devastated huge tracts of land, it is not surprising therefore that some villages affected by the fires may see and increase in numbers of baboons coming closer to urban areas for easy food rewards.

Towns such as Betty's Bay, Kleinmond, Pringle Bay and Hermanus were all affected by the fires and sadly some residents have resorted to shooting at baboons with pellet guns causing injuries to at least one male and killing two female baboons.

On the Cape peninsula the auhtorities authorised the killing of four adult male baboons and two of the surviving three juveniles of the Misty Cliffs troop died (one knocked over by a car and the other "drowned"); this leaves just one surviving juvenile in this small group.

Although we are unbearably saddened and frustrated by the relentless killing of baboons we do believe that our efforts to educate and liaise with interested and affected parties is bearing fruit.

Our educations videos have reached (colelctively) well over 60 000 viewers and our newsletters extend to an ever increasing readership. On social media over 45000 people actively comment and share posts from our Facebook and Instagram sites - so we are reaching more and more people who are showing willing to be involved.

In coming weeks we wlll be launching a new educational video, a newsletter and we are hosting a public meeting at teh end of June where we hope residents will pinpoiont key areas of concern for the authorities to address in a meaningfull way.

We desperately need to turn our attention to fundraising as funds are perilously low, and we plan to work on this issue through some innovative ideas we are planning. Watch this space...

Please keep supporting Baboon Matters - we are so grateful for your on-going contributions and support for the baboons.

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Mar 19, 2019
March 2019 Progress Report

By Jenni Trethowan | Founder

STOP KILLING THE BABOONS

In December 2018 we launched our campaign to raise funds that would enable Baboon Matters Trust to continue working towards our long-term goal whereby baboons are protected from hunting and that non-lethal methods of management are encouraged as preferred mitigation strategies for reducing conflict between baboons and humans across South Africa.

In the first quarter of the cycle we have raised just 10% of the goal for the year, and as we have been under huge pressure to assist in areas affected by fires as well as baboons killed by land owners, we know that we are going to be under enormous strain to keep up our good work if we don’t secure funding quickly.

We are planning specific fund raising campaigns but our work will also be taking us to the pine plantations of Mpumalanga to gather samples and to meet with land owners so that we can start work on scientifically based mitigation strategies that will reduce damage attributed to baboons.

We continue to pursue prosecution in cases where baboons have been heinously treated and killed – one case goes to trial at the end of March and we hope to push the public prosecutors to actively bring at least two other cases to court; a clear precedent must be set that it is not acceptable to kill baboons.

In efforts to create awareness and education about baboons, we have produced our first short education video about the behavior of baboons, watch the short on clip on this link:

https://web.facebook.com/Baboon-Matters-74156619573/?ref=bookmarks

We have also produced our first newsletter for 2019 and the articles have been well received, if you missed it, do take time to have an enjoyable read through!

https://us14.campaign-archive.com/?u=73329aa2571af8adfebff0d2c&id=967bf2a60d

We will be hard at work on a number of issues over the next few weeks, so please look out for our updates on social media, you can find us on Instagram, Facebook and in next couple of days twitter too.

Thank you so much for your support to date, it really is appreciated!

Warm regards,

Jenni

Baboon Matters Trust

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