The peaceful and incredibly beautiful village of Scarborough on the western coastline of the Cape Peninsula is at war!!!!!!!!
Troops of Chacma baboons lead by an alpha male known as "William the Conqueror" have the local residents swinging from the lampshades. These baboons are tremendously aggressive, especially when hungry. It is a fact that no amount of wealth can protect the residents against a hungry baboon.
The community is split between those who respect that these marauders should be saved and those who are just fed up with these stone - throwing hooligans. Are they going to go the same way as the Khoisan who used to roam the Cape Peninsula? The bad news is that it is probably inevitable that the baboons will gradually be forced into extinction.
But how does all of this impact on the wine industry?
Birdspale into insignificance as a pest compared to the problems experienced by Pieter Visser of the Oak Valley estate in the Elgin Valley. Baboons are his nightmare – the troop of baboons, that is, that come down out of the hills, ravish his vines, gorge on grapes and vanish into the night, like a simian SAS. Be afraid. Be very afraid. Pieter once lost two tons of fruit in two days, so he sent a gang of men to scare them away. They threw stones at the baboons, which are ferocious creatures, but the animals retaliated by throwing the stones back at the men, who promptly ran away. Baboon - 1, Man - 0. The baboons are protected, but Pieter chases them away by firing his shotgun into the air (though it occured to me in an uncharitable moment, that occasionally his aim may be off and that he might actually miss the air, as it were). These days, however, the apes recognise the sound of his truck’s engine and scarper when they hear it approaching, though they won’t clear off if any other vehicle approaches.
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