Wildlife group raises concerns over Cape Town's baboon confinement plan

An international wildlife organisation has sounded the alarm over the City of Cape Town’s plan to capture two free-ranging chacma baboon troops from the Cape Peninsula and confine them inside a one-hectare enclosure, warning the move could lead to stress, violence and animal deaths.

Animal Survival International (ASI), which operates in more than 10 countries with a focus on Africa, says the proposal raises serious animal welfare and environmental concerns and may have begun before all required legal and environmental processes were completed.

ASI campaign director Luke Barritt said the implications were severe and demanded urgent reconsideration.

“ASI urges the city to urgently relook at this situation because of how serious those implications are,” Barritt said.

The organisation warned that Cape Peninsula baboons are highly intelligent, socially complex wild animals that depend on large areas of mountainous and fynbos habitat. Even troops that forage in urban areas rely on wide-ranging movement for their physical and psychological wellbeing.

Confining them to a one-hectare enclosure would represent an extreme restriction of space, ASI said.

Even more troubling, the proposal would place two separate baboon troops into the same enclosure. In the wild, rival troops avoid conflict through distance and movement. Forced proximity removes this natural buffer, creating a high and predictable risk of aggression, injury and death — particularly among adult males.

Cape Town’s hot, dry summer conditions would further intensify pressure on the animals, increasing competition for shade, water and food within a confined space.

“Enclosing two free-ranging Cape Town baboon troops in such a limited space would predictably cause stress, conflict, and suffering,” Barritt said. “This is neither humane nor proportionate, particularly when viable alternatives exist.”

ASI said non-lethal alternatives — including improved waste management, baboon-proofing and coexistence-based strategies — have already been proposed and should be prioritised instead of confinement.

The City of Cape Town has yet to respond to the concerns.

Get your news on the go, click here to join the Cape Argus News WhatsApp channel.

Cape Argus