Pringle Bay: Not quite Planet of the Apes. скачать в хорошем качестве

Pringle Bay: Not quite Planet of the Apes.

Pringle Bay is a coastal village within the Kogelberg Biosphere, about 75 minutes’ drive from central Cape Town. It is home to about 1000 residents, doubling during Christmas & Easter holidays. But all year long there is a conflict between some of the residents and the baboons, and between two opposing groups of residents, who often disparagingly call each other 'Haters' or 'Huggers'. The conflict has largely been verbal and online, with toxic comments and threats hurled at pro-babooners often when disputes erupt (which is almost every time someone posts about the baboons on certain village social media feeds). Pro-babooners throw blame at anti-babooners for being irresponsible in baboon proofing their homes. Recently the conflict moved into the realm of physical violence. Over the last year several baboons have been deliberately killed. In front of several eyewitnesses, a local businessman consciously drove over a baby baboon on a village street, and left without stopping. Baboons have been shot with pellet guns and poisoned. A pregnant baboon was killed, her unborn baby died with her. Vets report that most baboons they treat have airgun pellets in them. Pro-baboon activists have been verbally abused and threatened both online and in real life, sometimes at gunpoint. One resident was recently prosecuted and ordered by the court to apologise to an activist for threatening her, albeit with a toy (but realistic looking) gun. 'Huggers' have been harassed and threatened by some of the village 'leaders', by people co-opting and claiming the title 'Rewilder'. The ‘Rewilders’ promote the idea that the baboons must be permanently kept out of the village. A number of these people advocate shooting the baboons. There are several troops along this coastline, and if one troop disappears, their absence is filled by an adjacent troop, who will move in on their territory and foraging area. It is widely known and acknowledged that this is the nature of baboon behaviour, yet the 'Rewilders' believe and insist that removing this troop will solve the problem. The anti-babooners have been effective in organising themselves to prevail on the Overstrand Municipality (OM) to enforce a programme of pushing the baboons out of the village into the surrounding mountains, which were ravaged by massive fires that destroyed large swathes of baboon foraging area in 2024. These ‘Rewilders’ insist that all baboons must be forced back into the mountains, despite loss of foraging area and insufficient water availability. Some residents feel strongly that the OM programme is being enforced by inadequately trained monitors, who sometimes inflict injury or cruelty on the baboons. On Christmas Eve 2024, the OM monitors’ hours were extended into the late evening, and residents have reported negatively on this. They witnessed armed men literally running around the community shooting at baboons for up to 16 hours a day. This would be extraordinary anywhere, let alone in a Biosphere, and often perceived as a sign of civil conflict, gangster and/or toxic male hegemony in a community. Meantime, the baboons continue to come into the village to forage on undeveloped land in areas between the mountain and the sea, where they have foraged for decades. However, the encroachment of new housing is slowly depriving them of familiar foraging grounds. So the baboons take advantage of easy pickings. Some residents are reluctant to ‘baboon proof’ their homes or use baboon-proof garbage bins, and look to the Municipality to take responsibility for the baboons. #toxicmasculinity #baboon #pringlebay #biosphere #biospherereserve