Lone baboon on the prowl: Port Alfred residents warned to keep distance

Port Alfred residents have been warned to look out for a large male baboon spotted in the resort town this week.

Local SPCA inspector Anel Slabbert yesterday warned that the animal could be dangerous and urged residents not to try and capture or shoot it.

“Baboons can be very dangerous. They have very big fangs and can rip a small child or animal apart if threatened or cornered.”

She said local game vet Dr Leon de Bruyn was on standby to dart the animal and relocate it into the wild when it was found.

According to Slabbert the adult baboon was first spotted between the Kelly’s Blue Flag beach and Shelley Beach on Monday and several times around the town since.

She said days had been spent searching the area with Ndlambe municipality’s environmental officials with no luck.

“We tried for hours each day to find it but it is hard to track because there are many houses with high walls and a lot of bush.”

Although Slabbert has not spotted it, photographs of the animal casually strolling down the fifth fairway of the Royal Port Alfred Golf Club on Monday and days later running across a busy road nearby in Dickinson Street have been posted on social media.

Gauteng holidaymaker Tony Johnson, who owns a house 20m from the fifth fairway, yesterday said he was in the kitchen when he looked up and spotted the baboon on the golf course on Monday afternoon.

“It was casually strolling down the fifth fairway 60m from my house.”

He said the fenced-in golf course, near the Blue Flag beach with thick bush, buck and game, was the perfect hideout for a baboon.

Slabbert yesterday said they had not yet searched the golf course.

Pictures of the baboon dodging cars near the golf course were posted later in the week on Facebook by pupil Ann Scott.

Comments ranged from fear and panic to queries on where a person could get “baboon repellent”.

A post on the Port Alfred and Ndlambe District SPCA warning about the dangers wild baboons posed was shared many times.

The post warned residents to keep windows closed, rubbish bags stored away until collection day and pets locked up.

“Be aware, this is a wild animal and if he feels threatened or in danger, he will attack and cause serious injury or even death.”

Slabbert said the animal was believed to be a young adult male probably driven out by one of the many troops – an older dominant male – that lived on farmland around the town. She said it was the first time she had heard or seen photos of a baboon in town.