"You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here...
Posted on 08/30/2010 10:48:22 AM PDT by nickcarraway
The sun is setting over South Africa's oldest vineyard and the last of the wine-tasting tourists are climbing onto their buses. But one large family group has no intention of leaving – and there is little the management can do about it.
Groot Constantia, in the heart of Cape Town's wine country, can deal with inebriated holidaymakers – but it is invading baboons which have developed a taste for its grapes that the wine makers are struggling with.
Each day, dozens of Cape Baboons gather to strip the ancient vines – the sauvignon blanc grapes are a particular favourite – before heading into the mountains to sleep. A few, who sample fallen fruit that has fermented in the sun, pass out and don't make it home.
"They are not just eating our grapes, they are raiding our kitchens and ripping the thatch off the roofs. They are becoming increasingly bold and destructive," said Jean Naude, general manager at the vineyard, which is celebrating its 325th birthday this year. Guards banging sticks and waving plastic snakes have been deployed with only limited success, and not even a blast of a vuvuzela, the plastic horn made famous at the World Cup, seems to frighten them.
It is not just the vineyards in South Africa which are under siege, however, but also the exclusive neighbouring suburb of Constantia, home to famous residents including Earl Spencer, Wilbur Smith and Nelson Mandela.
Crisis meetings between animal welfare groups and traumatised locals are struggling to find a workable solution.
"Where there's a mountain, there's a baboon," said Justin O'Riain of the Baboon Research Unit at the University of Cape Town. "As we take up more and more of their land, the conflict increases."
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
"You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here...
How about serving baboons stew with the wine...
Just by changing a few words and the location, this story could very well be about the boat club I belong to...
“Hi, I’m Joe, and I’m a baboon...”
black bears in the northeast get drunk from eating old apples in the late fall.
they are scary, but funny as all hell to watch.
from distance.
Let me guess: At your boat club, you’s change the word, “baboons,” to the word, “yuppies?”
“A few, who sample fallen fruit that has fermented in the sun, pass out and don’t make it home.”
I hate it when that happens.
Nothing worse than an obnoxious drunk monkey.......
If you’ve ever wondered why they never get invited to parties, now you know.
All looters will be shot...Including baboons.
“I don’t always drink beer...”
Oh, so that's why I've always hated monkeys.
Yes, yes. I love snakes, beetles, cats, lions, possums, raccoons, birds, duck-billed platypuses, camels, lynx, bears, foxes, bugs, horses, geese, elands (my favorite), dogs, spiders, armadillos, leopards, and cows, to name a few, but I really don't like monkeys. And clowns.
Actually no..."baboons" accurately describe some of them once the've got "a little Captain in them"...
A little .223 tonic would fix that problem nicely.
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