✖️ They belong in the mountains
Like other coastal baboons in the Western Cape, the Rooiels troop has a home range which starts at their sleeping sites in the mountains, and extends downwards, through the low lying areas down to the shoreline. And like troops in comparable habitats, the Rooiels troop prefers to forage at low altitudes¹ where the fynbos is denser and more nutritious, they have access to lawns and marine food, and where the environment is more hospitable to their travelling, resting and socialising preferences. For generations, perhaps centuries, the Rooiels troop has frequented this varied landscape, which includes the mountains, the low lying slopes and the shoreline .
The claim that “baboons belong in the mountains” is inaccurate and misleading. The higher lying mountain slopes in this area are dominated by nutrient-poor sandstone fynbos, which offers little in the way of sustenance for local wildlife². The nutritional value is so low that it is doubtful baboons could survive on it alone. Expecting baboons to remain only in the mountains ignores their ecological needs and misrepresents their natural ranging behavior. It is not an evolutionary smart or sustainable strategy, nor is it a valid justification for excluding them from parts of their home range.