Community monitors are questioning census and mortality figures for the Slangkop baboon troop as two females and their infants remain separated in Kommetjie. Claims that the Slangkop baboon troop’s decline cannot be fully accounted for by recorded deaths, and that two Kommetjie females are “too urbanised” to return to the troop, have been refuted by Sarah Waries, CEO of Shark Spotters. Waries said the troop declined by 15 individuals over an approximately 18-month period, from June 2024 to December last year, with 14 mortalities formally recorded during that time.
These included cases where carcasses were recovered, animals euthanised by veterinarians due to illness or injury, as well as management-related deaths. She said recorded mortalities reflected a range of causes, including direct human-related incidents such as vehicle collisions, indirect human-related causes like dog attacks, natural causes including infanticide, and cases where the precise cause could not be determined. Addressing claims that census figures and mortality records do not align, Waries stressed that census data are snapshots taken at two points in time, while mortality records accumulate continuously between those dates.
“Census figures cannot be used to attribute deaths on a one-for-one basis between years,” she said, adding that changes in juvenile numbers reflect a combination of recorded and unrecorded mortalities, animals ageing into new classes, and births and deaths occurring between census counts. Waries said it is also not possible to record every baboon death, as the animals range widely in mountainous and natural areas where rangers are required to keep a distance to allow natural foraging and movement. Deaths occurring away from roads or urban areas, or overnight at sleeping sites, may go unobserved and without carcass recovery.
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