Baboons!?

I see many roadside signs warning about wildlife but rarely see the wildlife in question. So when we drove to Simon's Town we started to see these signs warning us about baboons.



Wouldn't it be cool to see a baboon? After many more of these signs we started to think that there may be something to this. We rounded a bend and saw some baboons on the ground. They looked cute and we stopped the bukkie to take a picture. Ambereen said "Look at that" and right next to me (of course I had the window down) was a rather large male (that part was obvious) sitting on the hood. It startled me somewhat as he was too close for comfort, especially never having seen them in the wild. So my photography isn't the best.



These were the only baboons that we saw all day. Unfortunately people refuse to follow directions and end up feeding them which leads to the baboons becoming aggressive. They will enter cars, homes and businesses to look for food. So much so that people have to close their doors to keep them out.

Chacma Baboons are seen with regularity on the Cape Point Route. They are fun to watch, with human qualities and make fabulous subjects for photographers. The species is unique as they feed on shellfish! They have earned controversial status in the area due to ongoing conflict situations between man and baboon. This has resulted from the decrease in space of their natural habitat and the baboons are forced to forage in “human territory” to survive. Due to high mortality rates and threatened extinction, the Chacma Baboon troops in the Cape Peninsula are the only protected population of this species in Africa.