[imagesource:youtube/sapeople/Agi Orfanos]

Tourists visiting Cape Point Nature Reserve at the Cape of Good Hope got the real McCoy baboon treatment recently.

Photographer Agi Orfanos managed to capture the scene on camera, showing a tourist getting the fright of his life when a baboon began helping himself to the contents of his car.

As Orfanos joked with SAPeople, “We all love food and car rides. What’s wrong with some sharing!”

The video begins with the baboon digging in the boot before the shocked tourist tries to chase him away. Then the wild animal jumps on the roof only to slide down and effortlessly open the back door. On the backseat was a bunch of bananas in a box, which the baboon wasted no time chowing down on.

The tourist can be seen skipping about trying to figure out how to get the baboons out of the car, getting into one too many close calls with the creatures, who are far more unpredictable and aggressive than he may have realised.

Finally, someone who knows what’s up appeared to help them, explaining that the baboons bite and that everyone should leave the animals until they’ve decided they’ve had enough.

Sure enough, the baboons finally scamper off, but not empty-handed:

These baboons are a huge part of Cape Town’s tourism, and generally, the wilder baboon troops keep their distance. However, the City said that in popular tourist areas, such as Cape Point, “they can become quite aggressive if fed by humans”:

“We have to respect baboons, understanding that they are just trying to adapt to changes in their natural environment, but we also need to be careful of them since they are powerful animals and can be unpredictable…”

…“People have, especially in the past, fed baboons at stopping points near natural reserves and parks. This has encouraged baboons to seek out human food. Baboons may become aggressive in an effort to get more food from you. Feeding baboons also teaches bad habits that may ultimately lead to the animals death (usually by euthanasia),” says the City of Cape Town

Moral of the story? Hide your food, and protect your bananas.

In fact, feeding baboons in Cape Town is punishable by law, potentially leading to an R10 000 fine or two years imprisonment.

[source:sapeople]