Martello: dominant alpha male baboon planned for euthanasia given lifeline

THE Cape Peninsula Baboon Management Joint Task Team (CPBMJTT) has given a dominant alpha male baboon a lifeline, saying that plans to put him down were off the table.

- NICOLA DANIELS

This comes after conservation advocates raised concerns over the planned euthanasia of Martello, the alpha male of the Seaforth baboon troop, following the release of the Final Baboon Action Management Plan.

The plan released last week was signed and approved by SANParks, CapeNature, and the City of Cape Town and aimed at establishing a "healthy, well-managed, sustainable, free-ranging baboon population with minimal human interference, overlap and conflict and a reduction in day-to-day aversive measures".

The plan includes building a sanctuary, fencing, a waste strategy, Wildlife bylaw and bylaw enforcement and population control.

The maximum sub-population number for the northern troops is set at 250 at any given time. If the upper population limits are exceeded for longer than six months, "animals will be humanely euthanised to achieve these outcomes".