Baboon Mischief at Wildcliff

In May 2007, when we first discussed the purchase of the property with the former owners, we were told of the baboons. “A nuisance,” Gordon Hewland told us. “They pull apart the water pipes.”

How interesting to see baboons, we thought.

Later, our neighbor Bob Brown told us a story that shed more light on the relationship between the Hewlands and their fellow primates. When Gordon was home, the baboons would stay clear of the farmhouse. But when they saw his white pickup truck leave, they would clamber onto the house looking for food or other items of interest. Frustrated with the animals’ forwardness, Gordon installed an electric fence around the house.

He watched to see what would happen. In due course, a large, mature male and two juveniles approached the house. One touched the wire, and bounced back in shock. A second tried to climb over it, with the same result. The three baboons retreated a bit, pondering. Soon, however, the wily creatures had the fence figured out. As a smaller male crouched, the large one leapt onto its back and sprang over the fence. The third baboon followed suit, and before long Jeanne’s vegetable patch was being raided once again. We did not learn how the baboons got back over the fence, but it seems that that was the end of Gordon’s electric fence.

As we and our research volunteers gained more experience with our simian fellow residents, we learned two facts. First, there were many more than we’d surmised. In August 2007, Ian photographed a group of over 30 foraging in the meadow below Talari, the old farmhouse. Later the number expanded to 50-odd, and subsequent reports place the population closer to 80.

Second, we learned that living with baboons can be interesting. Some “reports from the field” follow.

At about the same time, one of the anecdotes that amused us was recounted by Ann, a friend and Renovator-in-chief of the Heron House. In October 2007 we had had a new dam excavated below the farmhouse, in order to encourage waterbirds, and have the pleasure of watching them from the veranda.

Ann and Ena were gazing through the kitchen window at the dam which had only just been filled with water, when movement caught their eye. It was the baboon troop, filing out of the forest and approaching the new dam cautiously. Several adults, with as many as 20 small baboons, came up to the edge of the dam, where they lined up and gazed down at the water, apparently in wonderment at the sudden appearance of a new water source where none had been before. The little ones hopped up and down in excitement, but after several minutes, the adults led them back to the forest – just as if it had been a school outing and their elders had shown them something new and educational.