This month, with the long Easter weekend accompanied by relatively good weather, a plethora of reasons prevailed to go to Harold Porter National Botanical Gardens, not least of which the park run, plant sales, Easter egg hunts and face-painting for the kids, apart from the beauty and tranquillity of the garden, the request was made that the new Overstrand Municipality Environmental monitors help out in the gardens by steering baboons away from picnickers.
The monitors had all passed stringent interviews for their positions and are all local. They were excellent at their jobs. It was wonderful to see them loving their job, showing initiative, predicting possible incidents and being there when it counted.
All these are traits we have long wished for and recommended. This interaction showed us very clearly that there is another, different, way that the baboons can be managed (without any aggression towards them to boot) and could provide a cost-effective answer for a way forward in enabling the community to bridge the divide in which we find ourselves.