Sex monkeys strike in South Africa

Sunday Times:

Male, sexist and drunk, the unruly group were every restaurant owner’s nightmare.

“I tried to get rid of them, but they were having a party, eating all my bread, bananas and avocados and swigging bottles of wine they had taken out of the refrigerator,” said Carol White, who runs the Camel Rock restaurant in the quiet village of Scarborough near Cape Point, South Africa, at the very tip of the continent.

“They ignore women completely and only cleared off when one of my male staff came,” she added.

Mrs White was not talking about a mob of South African rugby supporters, notorious even in their homeland for their boorish manners, but a group of endangered Chacma baboons. Troops of the animals, led by burly alpha males, have been terrorising the small community on the Atlantic side of the Cape Point nature reserve — one of the most picturesque and usually tranquil areas in South Africa.

Stripped of their natural fear of humans by tourists who give them bananas and other food in defiance of local regulations, the baboons have formed themselves into raiding parties and frequently descend on the village.

“They have realised that this is much easier than finding food in their natural habitat. They are very clever animals and have learnt how to open windows and fridges. We are easy pickings,” Mrs White said.

Over the past few months, the baboons have burgled houses, sometimes by pushing their babies through security bars and getting them to open a window latch. They have also raided the only store in the town and have intimidated inhabitants, particularly women. A few weeks ago they fought a pitched battle with a group of pet dogs — most of which came off worse — further terrifying residents.

“The alpha males have no respect at all for women. It is an instinct thing,” said Adele Coetzee, whose home was raided a few months ago. “I heard shuffling upstairs and thought it was my boyfriend. They came in through a bedroom window but then went straight down into the kitchen. They trashed the place.”

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There is more. It appears that the attempts to humanize these apes has resulted in making them aggressive bunglers. They appear to be guys who belong behind bars if they do not return to the wild. The south Africans should consider selling them to zoos around the world to export the problem.