Baboon Matters

The signs at Cape Point warning you not to feed the baboons are there for a reason. After years of interacting with tourists, the baboons will quite happily grab food from your hands or climb in the open doors and windows of your car to get at it. Never challenge them as they will turn aggressive. The damage inflicted might end up being far more serious than baboon crap over your car seats, so keep an eye out and your food carefully hidden away.

Showing a much gentler side to baboon life is the project Baboon Matters which looks after four baboon troops. On a two-to-three-hour guided hike you’ll get to spend time observing a troop at very close quarters – it’s an amazing experience. The project was started to help preserve the Chacma baboon population, estimated at around 240 and dangerously close to extinction on the Cape. Monitors have been employed to keep the baboons out of the villages where they come into conflict with humans.