Cape Town to pay for baboon monitors
2010-11-09 13:37
Cape Town - The City of Cape Town says it has decided to cough up for a renewed baboon management contract, even though it has gone to court over the issue.
It said on Tuesday it had approved the contract, for baboon monitoring services, to the end of June 2012.
The city asked the Western Cape High Court in October to rule on who is responsible for managing baboon troops on the Cape Peninsula.
SANParks, which runs the Table Mountain National Park, says it has no mandate to deal with troops that move into neighbouring suburban areas. The city in turn has complained it is carrying the cost of the programme on its own, even though it is not constitutionally mandated to manage wild animals.
The city said on Tuesday it had decided to not let monitoring be interrupted while it was waiting for the declaratory order, which has yet to be argued in court.
Baboon monitors are deployed along the urban edge to keep troops away from built-up areas.
Researchers at the University of Cape Town say the monitors reduce baboon-human interactions by up to 80%.
- SAPA