Sonny Mowbray’s Hunting the (Politically Incorrect) Baboon

Peter Capstick is quoted as saying that the article he wrote about his organized baboon shoot stirred more response and emotion than any other. I wonder if there was any positive feedback from folks who lived with the wild baboons while eking out a living on a farm.

Many ranchers in the Waterberg region of South Africa will tell you that their policy is to shoot baboons on sight, which has made them extremely wary of humans. Some game ranchers will allow you to shoot a baboon free of charge or for a token trophy fee of $50. Yet the baboon continues to thrive. They are uncanny at surviving. I find they offer a sporting hunt.

The Limpopo Province, which includes the Waterberg region and the towns of Warmbaths (now Bela Bela); Thabazimbi; Nylstroom (now Modimolle); Vaalwater and Ellisras (now Lephalale), is well known for its hunting. The province hires baboon control officers. They keep busy but hardly make a dent in the overall problem. A great many South African farmers laugh at the practice of catching and transplanting baboons, and often take it upon themselves to trap live baboons to destroy rather than passing the problem onto others.

The baboon is considered a pest; a troop of hungry baboons can raise havoc and destroy nearly everything in its path. On occasion baboons have nearly turned farmsteads into vacant lands. I met a lady who complained they had torn up and eaten all her flowers. The following week, they killed her chickens and two newborn calves, in addition to stripping most of the blooms from her fruit trees. She was thankful when they moved across the mountain, but her neighbours soon reported baboon problems.

Baboons can – and do – travel. Their footprints somewhat resemble a barefooted human’s, but few humans can travel as far or as fast and over such difficult terrain. From my own experience, by the time I would reach a high vantage point the baboons would already be on the next mountainside over a mile away. I was amazed. Watching through my scope a sub-dominant male climbing a tree, I was sure he was sneering at my futile attempts.

After a career as a wildlife biologist in North America I had the opportunity to serve as a game manager on a private ranch near Vaalwater, in South Africa. I thought this was a perfect opportunity to get Africa out of my system, since on past safaris I’d never felt quite ready to return to the States. I’ve hunted most species available in South Africa - at least those that my budget would allow. This stay has helped get Africa out of my veins, at least for a while. I was actually becoming bored for a day or two, seeing the same animals in the same habitat and not being able to hunt them.

Then the word got to me: baboons were tearing up property, fields, abattoirs, livestock, etc. I was welcome to hunt on several ranches as long as I did not shoot anything except baboons. After many days and many miles walking, I totalled four dead large males and another that I hit hard, but was unable to find the carcass. He was running at the time of the shot, and the blood trail was lost after a hundred yards over the rocks.

The riflescope is a wonderful piece of equipment, and I was becoming known as the American Baboon Control Person. You can stalk baboons, but being upwind sure helps. The dried leaves on the ground are worse than frying-pan-snow for noise. The local farmers say that it’s easier to hunt them in the South African summer (November to February) when more leaves are on the trees and the baboons feel more secure in that they are hidden and less flighty.

Sometimes a labourer from the ranch where I stayed went with me, primarily to help with communication in the local Venda language. He was not a tracker or skinner, but his eyes and ears were certainly better than mine. One day we heard some ‘boons deep in the bush and were trying to close the distance between them and us. However, they vanished never to be heard or seen again. My guide was wearing his favourite bright-blue overalls and an orange cap. Although not sure of my facts, I think baboons might be able to distinguish colours. I pantomimed that he should take off the cap and not wear bright clothes while we were hunting. He made it known to me that it never seemed to scare them away before – we jokingly agreed he failed as a decoy.

In my scouting of the rocky outcrops and ridges, I found many caves and beds that were used by the baboons. Yes, you can read and smell their spoor as to freshness, too! I spent several evenings waiting on the ridges for them to return, but to no avail. I was where they had been, not where they were going, and there were too many caves where they could spend the night. They outfoxed me on that plan.

I also spent time at waterholes; this was supposed to be a surefire plan. But, once again, it didn’t work for me. Six baboons visited one of those waterholes the day after I’d sat there for the previous half-day: Timing is everything. It was not wasted time, however, as I saw other species come by at very close range; I especially enjoyed the antics of a family of banded mongoose. I was assured by one of the hunters that the hotter the day the better the waterhole works for baboons; yet I found puddles in the rocks that were being used. I question whether water was a limiting factor except, perhaps, during drought. In my opinion they search more for food than water. Lack of patience probably prevented me from getting more baboons.

What do you do with a baboon after you’ve gotten it? Even though a leopard will not take on a healthy, full-grown baboon in battle, according to PHs in the business of leopard hunting, baboons are the best bait, better than impala or warthog. But the animals I shot were not wasted - the locals ate them. Different strokes for different folks.

I was only interested in the skulls. Those canines are certainly impressive and easily demonstrate why baboons can tear apart anything they want. Most taxidermists list mounting baboons in several positions or just a cleaning of skulls in their price list; the taxidermist I spoke with said they do a few every year, so I’m not the only one to hunt baboons.

Baboon hunting added a lot of enjoyment to my South African sojourn. If you have hunted most of the regal game the country has to offer and have a few days left on safari – go after a baboon. Bet he’ll test your wits, and you’ll help in the war on crop terrorism too! The babies may be wide-eyed and cute, but big males are anything but warm and fuzzy. Just as with bushbuck or waterbuck, use great caution approaching a baboon you think is dead. I would not like to be a recipient of an attack by one.

Ironically, I just learned that while ‘controlling’ baboons in South Africa, wild hogs were tearing up my yard and pasture at home in Florida.

American Sonny Mowbray is a wildlife biologist by advocacy and an outdoor writer – and hunter - by avocation. Environmentalists around the world have read his articles on conservation.