Residents of Cape Town are up in arms about CapeNature issuing Constantia Valley wine farms with hunting permits for baboons.

The permits allow the wine farms to kill up to two baboons per day.

The news was first reported by the Constantiaberg Bulletin on Wednesday, who cited an unnamed source as saying that the “wine farms had applied for the permits after learning at a meeting last year that the baboons weren’t protected and could be hunted”.

More from that report:

The source said a professional hunter was shooting baboons at their sleep site, in trees, and that several animals – including those with collars – had already disappeared and that the animals had been driven into urban areas, where they were getting attacked by dogs, shot with pellet guns and poisoned.

Klein Constantia and Buitenverwachting wine farms confirmed they had been granted the hunting permits. Klein Constantia has hired a professional hunter.

The permits were actually issued back in October of last year, and will run through until October of this year. Even if the hunter/hunters are coming nowhere close to bagging two baboons per day, that’s plenty of time to put a real dent in the population.

According to CapeNature spokeswoman Marietjie Engelbrecht, the permits were issued as a last resort:

“The applicants could prove that they have implemented multiple non-lethal mitigation measures over a number of years to try and prevent the continued damage to vineyards and infrastructure without success. And they have experienced extensive losses,” she said.

The SPCA, who form part of the Baboon Technical Team (BTT) that oversees baboon management in the Cape Peninsula, say they were not consulted, and only learnt of the permits when contacted earlier in the week.

Buitenverwachting’s owner, Lars Maack, defended the hunting permits:

[Maack] said he had applied for a hunting licence last year, as a last resort, after putting up specialised electrified game fences and building foundations to stop baboons climbing or digging their way onto the farm.

The farm also had a team of three permanent baboon monitors – trained by HWS to use paintball guns – patrolling its boundaries

“The aim is to push them back into their habitat without causing them harm,” he said.

“The losses to our crop are still substantial, but I don’t intend using the permit for the purpose of protecting our crop. The reason for my application is to have a legal framework to protect my staff, residents and our animals.

“We’ve had some horrific and repeated attacks on our dogs and other animals, and my staff are spooked by some aggressive raiders that repeatedly hit our homes.

“As much as we work in conjunction with HWS [Human Wildlife Solutions], unfortunately, they are not mandated by the City to protect farmland,” said Mr Maack.

Klein Constantia vineyard manager Craig Harris also outlined the extensive efforts they have undertaken regarding the baboon issue, including an annual spend on monitors, paintball guns and gas of around R430 000.

Mr Harris said the professional hunter hired by the farm acts as as predator and goes for the sick, injured or older baboons, but he refused to say how many baboons had been killed so far, and instead referred the Bulletin to CapeNature.

When the Bulletin enquired about exact numbers, Engelbrecht said the register showed that seven baboons had been killed since the permits were issued.

Over on Facebook, calls for boycotting the wine farms in question are growing. That has resulted in Buitenverwachting issuing the following statement:

As of the time of writing, Klein Constantia have yet to issue a statement on their Facebook page.

The Baboon Matters Facebook page is a hive of activity, and you can see their lengthy response to the Constantiaberg Bulletin’s article here.

Below is a snippet of that response:

I am absolutely gutted to confirm the below article. Permits have been issued and 7 baboons have been killed professional hunters hired by the vineyards.

Of huge concern, is that in recent weeks there has been a great deal of “chatter” on social media reporting shootings, hearing shots in the Tokai/Constantia area, there are reports that a whole troops have been removed and reports of shootings at times when the professional hunters were reportedly not hunting the baboons.

We urgently need to see an updated census for the Constantia troops so that we can exactly how many baboons are missing.

Hunting baboons in the middle of the ‘burbs is always going to be a divisive issue. Although the hunting permits managed to fly under the radar for a good eight or nine months, that veil has been lifted, and the public backlash may only be beginning.

[source:constantiabergbulletin]