www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=14&art_id=vn20060207030821888C866139

'My family was at the mercy of the baboons'

By Leanne Raymond

The grandmother of the four-year-old boy injured by a baboon at the Kogel Bay picnic site says there was no security and even after the attack the baboons continued to threaten them.

Johanna Adams, grandmother of Luciano "CJ" Adams, who is recovering well, said: "I'm angry because we paid to be safe and there was no security. Even after the attack we had to protect the other children from the baboons."

Gert Bam, the City of Cape Town's director responsible for recreation facilities, said the bins at the picnic site were not baboon-proof and did not need to be because security officials patrolled the area and regularly emptied them.
He said he had heard that Luciano was near two fighting males, one of which broke away and attacked the boy.

He said that, thanks to the security, there had not been problems with aggressive baboons at the site before. The bins did not attract baboons to the picnic spot.

Adams, however, said baboons were scrounging in and eating from bins about five metres from her party. Two baboons were fighting some distance from the children, she said.

Suddenly, one of the baboons, which had a chest wound, abandoned the fight and went for Luciano.

"It happened so fast we didn't have time to do anything," she said.

At first she and her family thought the baboon had scratched Luciano with his nails. But, as the injured child lay between the baboon's legs, they saw blood in the animal's mouth.

The baboon was about to bite Luciano again, but her son-in-law threw a stone and it ran off, Adams said.

Luciano had a wound to his stomach and his bowel was protruding.

"It is by God's grace that he survived," said Adams.

She drove her daughter, Nicolene, and Luciano to meet the Red Cross Air Mercy Service helicopter and returned to the rest of the family waiting at the picnic site.

"The baboons came for us again. We had to protect the children from them. There were still no security guards," said Adams. "I will take this further.

"There was only one sign (warning about baboons), far from the picnic spot, nearer to Gordon's Bay."

Adams said none of the children had food in their hands. They had just lit the braai fire and the food had not been unpacked.

Nicolene Adams said her son was doing "fine".

Bam said he would have an emergency meeting with the city's nature conservation department to decide whether the incident should "affect the arrangement we have there". He could not say when it would be.

Bam has asked to be given a written report on the incident within 48 hours and says he will proceed once he has it.

Dalton Gibbs, the city's nature conservation manager for the area that includes Kogel Bay, said the incident would be investigated, as would the site to decide if changes should be made.

He said attention might have to be given to the management of waste disposal, baboon-proof bins, and introducing more security guards and signs warning people who use the site.

He said it would not help to kill the baboon that attacked the boy without understanding what had caused its behaviour.

Primatologist Dave Gaynor said baboons that lost a fight sometimes took their aggression out on a weaker baboon, but were not known to do this to other animals or people.

Baboon are fucking nasty
but yeah know what? the real world is not Disney
people amaze me

Thought this was going to be an thread.

Whew!

While I think my chances against a baboon are slim....Anger is a powerful tool.
And I'd be mightily pissed if a baboon tried to bite the intestines out of my child.
MIGHTILY pissed.

Specop 007:

Actually you stand a decent chance against a baboon.  A BIG male only weighs about 40kg.

Amped on adrenaline, you could tear an 85 pound primate to pieces.   Yeah, you will get bit.  

There is a reason the damn monkey charged a child - he knew he could not take an adult.


Lem

.

What round for vicious baboons?

Napalm:

A .220 Swift, or a 6mm/284 is a good choice for baboon.


Lem

Quoted: Specop 007: Actually you stand a decent chance against a baboon.  A BIG male only weighs about 40kg. Amped on adrenaline, you could tear an 85 pound primate to pieces.   Yeah, you will get bit.   There is a reason the damn monkey charged a child - he knew he could not take an adult. Lem .

I'll let you take my baboon fights in the future. I'll watch. Thanks.

 Having narrowly avoided monkey death in my youth, understand that there is only one recourse to Simian Assault.

NUKE THEM FROM ORBIT!!!  It's the only way to be sure.

Quoted: Specop 007: Actually you stand a decent chance against a baboon.  A BIG male only weighs about 40kg. Amped on adrenaline, you could tear an 85 pound primate to pieces.   Yeah, you will get bit.   There is a reason the damn monkey charged a child - he knew he could not take an adult. Lem .

Chimpanzees are 4 to 7 times stronger than the average human male. Baboons are not as genetically amped, but their muscles still have a greater strength/weight-volume ratio than people.
Tearing limbs off would not be out of the question here.

Quoted: Quoted: Specop 007: Actually you stand a decent chance against a baboon.  A BIG male only weighs about 40kg. Amped on adrenaline, you could tear an 85 pound primate to pieces.   Yeah, you will get bit.   There is a reason the damn monkey charged a child - he knew he could not take an adult. Lem . Chimpanzees are 4 to 7 times stronger than the average human male. Baboons are not as genetically amped, but their muscles still have a greater strength/weight-volume ratio than people. Tearing limbs off would not be out of the question here.

Yes, I've read that pound for pound monkeys are 6 times stonger than humans

(I don't care if whatever given primate is not technically a monkey)

Don't forget that largest canine teeth of any mamal

I was in Zambia 9 years ago and hunted yellow baboons for fun- kinda like shooting groundhogs if you know what I mean. The big boars will stand nearly 4 feet tall and the canine teeth are nearly 3 inches long. The natives would beg you to shoot them "Bwana shoot baboon?!" as the baboons would eat the natives' crops (corn mostly).

I popped them with anything from a 22 mag. to a 458 win mag with 500 grain solids. No shit but one old boar spilled 8 feet of intestines after he was hit with a 375 H&H mag- he scooped his guts up in one arm and climbed 20 feet up a tree where he screamed at us and showed his teeth. I put a 375 round between his eyes and that pretty much quieted him down.

No way would a mere mortal survive a hand-to-hand engagement with an adult baboon. You'd better grab a big fucking stick and be prepared for a long plane ride to a hospital if you live because you're going to be fucked up.

Quoted: I was in Zambia 9 years ago and hunted yellow baboons for fun- kinda like shooting groundhogs if you know what I mean. The big boars will stand nearly 4 feet tall and the canine teeth are nearly 3 inches long. The natives would beg you to shoot them "Bwana shoot baboon?!" as the baboons would eat the natives' crops (corn mostly). I popped them with anything from a 22 mag. to a 458 win mag with 500 grain solids. No shit but one old boar spilled 8 feet of intestines after he was hit with a 375 H&H mag- he scooped his guts up in one arm and climbed 20 feet up a tree where he screamed at us and showed his teeth. I put a 375 round between his eyes and that pretty much quieted him down. No way would a mere mortal survive a hand-to-hand engagement with an adult baboon. You'd better grab a big fucking stick and be prepared for a long plane ride to a hospital if you live because you're going to be fucked up.

DAMN!!!!!!!!  That was one tough critter.  Here is what you can use on them, good old BUFF!!!

"It's not the baboons that are the problem; it's the irresponsible baboon owners who are at fault".

always wanted a baboon..

aniwayz.. someone start a pole... which is more likely, attack by baboon or attack by terrorist..

I just remembered the scene in Family Guy where a Japanese man is walking down the streets of Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945.  He walks up to his car and finds a ticket on his windshield.  He says, "A parking ticket?  I was gone five minutes!"  THen a car drives by and splashes him with mud.  "Arrgh!  How could this day get any worse?"  Then a shadow appears over him with a whistling sound.  He looks up, and says, "Oh . . . My . . . a-God . . ."  Suddenly a baboon lands on him and begins ripping him up.

Quoted: Specop 007: Actually you stand a decent chance against a baboon.  A BIG male only weighs about 40kg. Amped on adrenaline, you could tear an 85 pound primate to pieces.   Yeah, you will get bit.   There is a reason the damn monkey charged a child - he knew he could not take an adult. Lem .

RIGHT....

Tell that to the guy who lives up in the mountains just a bit east of me who lost part of a foot, a hand, a testicle, and half his face to a Chimp.

Chimps don't have nearly as nasty of teeth as Baboons.    Pound for pound, the two are probably similar in terms of strength between ape species.     But it's pretty well known that apes can pretty much tear a big strong guy a new one if they really choose to.

Quoted: Thought this was going to be an thread. Whew!

I thought it would be of a thread. I thought threads are more Nazi anti-Jew.



Either way... you can believe you can beat a baboon in hand-to-hand all you want. If you happen to feel the need to prove it please make sure you have someone with you to video tape it because I'd love to see that ass whupping. Even if a regulam man and baboon were matched in strength I would imagine once a baboon goes into one of those crazy monkey frenzies you'd pretty well be able to kiss you ass good-bye literally because it would tear your ass off and shove it down your throat. Believe what you want though.

Quoted: i was involved with a biological containment and cleanup of a animal holding facility with several hundred baboons that skipped quaranteen in customs and were infected with cimean<sp> ebola.

OMG!  Do they give you the madness when they bite you?

Dumbasses should have kept their kids closer to their party. Or better yet left the area.

I love how they want to blame security for their own lack of responsibility.


Dumbasses.

Quoted: He said it would not help to kill the baboon that attacked the boy without understanding what had caused its behaviour.

Well, what the heck.

Let's just kill it anyway.

Quoted: Quoted: He said it would not help to kill the baboon that attacked the boy without understanding what had caused its behaviour. Well, what the heck. Let's just kill it anyway.

Baboon O' Truth?

Quoted: Specop 007: Actually you stand a decent chance against a baboon.  A BIG male only weighs about 40kg. Amped on adrenaline, you could tear an 85 pound primate to pieces.   Yeah, you will get bit.   There is a reason the damn monkey charged a child - he knew he could not take an adult. Lem .

As others have mentioned, you might want to read up on baboon fighting techniques before you go into the ring with one. I have read stories about where two of them ganged up and took out a leopard that had been stalking a troop. Interestingly, both of them were killed in the process -- which is kind of a way of saying "Fuck your adrenalin!"

Also, other primates tend to be a lot stronger than humans. For example, a 165 pound female chimp was tested at having pulled 3,500 pounds with a one-arm pull. Now, you would think that, just by weight, you might be a good match for her. You would be mistaken.

I don't care how pissed you were. I wouldn't bet two cents on you making it to the end of the first round. You be one hurtin' mofo in short order.

Quoted: "It's not the baboons that are the problem; it's the irresponsible baboon owners who are at fault". home.comcast.net/~bfd750/nigerians2.jpg

Is that New Orleans??

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: He said it would not help to kill the baboon that attacked the boy without understanding what had caused its behaviour. Well, what the heck. Let's just kill it anyway. Baboon O' Truth?

ROTFLMAO.

I say we get a "BUY PAINLESS A BABOON" thread going right now.     AR15.com unite, I'll donate 50 bucks.

When I was in East Africa, baboons were an every day event at our camps. I'm not talking champagne safari's....I'm talking 80 pound backpacks, dry food, water, 200 miles from the nearest road.

There was no formal security what so ever. We were security.

Every single day, a troop of baboons would find our camp. They were incredibly curious and given the chance and a few feet of unattended space, they'd rush in one by one to steal ANYTHING they could carry off. You can imagine the problem you'd face if a baboon stole one hiking boot. Africa + 80 pound backpack + 15/20 miles of hiking a day + 1 boot + the middle of nowhere = no fuckin way. Bottomline is that EVERYTHING needed to be secured from them.

We spent 6 hours one day trying to find the boot of a friend of mine that got taken. We found it fortunately.

The big males are incredible intimidating and will posture aggressively, but any decent sized man who stepped towards them and motioned back and yelled aggressively, could get the biggest males to take off. It wasn't long before they were back though.

Personally, I like them. They were an endless source of amusement to me and the games we played with them every day was a pretty endeering part of the experience for me.

I can remember being by Lake Bagoria(sp?)....you may have seen this place, it's known for being the home to millions of flamingos....the ground looks pink from the air. At our camp by the lake, I started to notice baboon carcasses in the trees. Small baboon carcasses. I figured some sort of large cat was responsible, until I saw the culprit in action. Eagles, that made bald eagles look tiny in comparison, would swoop down and grab baboons by the back of the neck, fly them to a tree and pull them apart.

You haven't heard a scream until you've heard a baboon being slowly eaten by a huge eagle...trust me....it'll shoot you straight up out of a deep sleep like nobody's business.

I have to agree, baboons are nasty MF'ers.

Quoted: Dumbasses should have kept their kids closer to their party. Or better yet left the area. I love how they want to blame security for their own lack of responsibility. Dumbasses.

I agree, very poor awareness of their surroundings. Did these people think that the baboon activity was going to settle down after they set-up their picnic and started cooking?

Quoted: Quoted: Dumbasses should have kept their kids closer to their party. Or better yet left the area. I love how they want to blame security for their own lack of responsibility. Dumbasses. I agree, very poor awareness of their surroundings. Did these people think that the baboon activity was going to settle down after they set-up their picnic and started cooking?

+1 Not to mention that these people are locals and were aware of the baboons before they went to the park.  Security may not have been what it should be, but they're idiots for letting their kid get that close to two 80lb (est.) monkeys who are obviously fighting.

I feel sorry for the kid and his parents for having to endure that, but they obviously weren't using common sense.

Quoted: When I was in East Africa, baboons were an every day event at our camps. I'm not talking champagne safari's....I'm talking 80 pound backpacks, dry food, water, 200 miles from the nearest road. ... You haven't heard a scream until you've heard a baboon being slowly eaten by a huge eagle...trust me....it'll shoot you straight up out of a deep sleep like nobody's business.

Could you shoot the baboons.

That was an awesome read. I can just picture what that must have been like. Sounds like, despite the exhausting physical part of it, it must have been an amazing and great experience.

I can't even imagine what it's like to see an eagle swoop down and pick up a baboon.

Got any pictures from your adventures? I'd love to see them.

Many folks are no longer at the top of the food chain.  

Quoted: Quoted: "It's not the baboons that are the problem; it's the irresponsible baboon owners who are at fault". home.comcast.net/~bfd750/nigerians2.jpg Is that New Orleans??

Detroit

Quoted: Quoted: When I was in East Africa, baboons were an every day event at our camps. I'm not talking champagne safari's....I'm talking 80 pound backpacks, dry food, water, 200 miles from the nearest road. ... You haven't heard a scream until you've heard a baboon being slowly eaten by a huge eagle...trust me....it'll shoot you straight up out of a deep sleep like nobody's business. Could you shoot the baboons. That was an awesome read. I can just picture what that must have been like. Sounds like, despite the exhausting physical part of it, it must have been an amazing and great experience. I can't even imagine what it's like to see an eagle swoop down and pick up a baboon. Got any pictures from your adventures? I'd love to see them.

For whatever reason, the baboons never struck any of us as something we cared to shoot in the 1st place. They actually served as one hell of an early warning system for animals that were a MUCH greater concern. When you see 50 baboons start screaming and hauling ass up trees, there was ALWAYS a good reason.

My time in Africa wont be repeated, for a bunch of reasons, but the last time I was there, it was possibly the best 3 months of my entire life. Climed Mt.Kilimanjaro, Mt.Kenya, hiked the Great Rift Valley for a couple hundred miles, hiked the Massai Mara for a couple hundred more, sailed the Indian Ocean with Somali fishermen and island hopped with them from Somalia, past Kenya, to Tansania...it was something else.

The stories could fill a book...easily...which is the reward for shitting in a hole in the ground, bathing in rivers, eating who-knows-what, and saying goodbye to everything even remotely familiar in favor of the experience itself.

I have a TON of photos, I'll have to dig around and see if I can find some of the better ones and post a few. Glad you enjoyed the read.

Quoted: I have a TON of photos, I'll have to dig around and see if I can find some of the better ones and post a few. Glad you enjoyed the read.

Definitely inspiring. I almost feel like walking away from this computer and flying out there right now. Almost.

I assume part of the reason you wouldn't want to go back is because of all the "turmoil" in that entire region? Was it a lot more "stable" then than it is now?

Quoted: Quoted: I have a TON of photos, I'll have to dig around and see if I can find some of the better ones and post a few. Glad you enjoyed the read. Definitely inspiring. I almost feel like walking away from this computer and flying out there right now. Almost. I assume part of the reason you wouldn't want to go back is because of all the "turmoil" in that entire region? Was it a lot more "stable" then than it is now?

A big part of the reason is turmoil.

Turns out some of the islands I stayed at on the Indian Ocean, just off Kenya, were places traced to Al Quaida planning locations prior to 09/11. Names you'd know from the news were there at one time or another. I was unaware of that stuff then, and it makes a difference in my thinking to say the least. The Indian Ocean coastline....hell....much of East Africa is muslum. I don't go to muslum countries. Period. Never. Not after what I know now. In 2000 it was a different story.

There were a few occasions that the general population seemed sketchy to say the least. Lots of guys in uniform (no two matching uniforms in the whole lot) looked like militia in some rural parts...lots of AK's....no way to bail or get help.....just potentially a bad sceen. Also, in urban areas guys whith a variety of weapons chewing Khott(sp?). Makes for a very aggitated, nervous, hostile group....and being white, there is simply no blending in. Might as well have a "Hey! Look at me! My clothing isnt rags, I probably have some money!" banner across your chest.

Being in the middle of nowhere and the only other humans being Massai was where I felt the safest (with the occasional terrifying experience with wildlife). Anything at all urban felt volitile constantly. I don't think Africa's gotten any better...and I have little faith in those who occupy it to level off any time soon.

Quoted: Being in the middle of nowhere and the only other humans being Massai was where I felt the safest (with the occasional terrifying experience with wildlife). Anything at all urban felt volitile constantly. I don't think Africa's gotten any better...and I have little faith in those who occupy it to level off any time soon.

Doesn't it suck when people just ruin everything?

How hard is it to travel into foreign countries with weapons? If you plan on doing something like that and you want to have some protection with you but you don't want ot rely on a guide or want to try buying in country?

What Would Heston Do?

Quoted: Many folks are no longer at the top of the food chain.

That could of been the tag line for the John Rhys-Davies film In The Shadow Of Kilaminjaro

www.imdb.com/title/tt0091264

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: When I was in East Africa, baboons were an every day event at our camps. I'm not talking champagne safari's....I'm talking 80 pound backpacks, dry food, water, 200 miles from the nearest road. ... You haven't heard a scream until you've heard a baboon being slowly eaten by a huge eagle...trust me....it'll shoot you straight up out of a deep sleep like nobody's business. Could you shoot the baboons. That was an awesome read. I can just picture what that must have been like. Sounds like, despite the exhausting physical part of it, it must have been an amazing and great experience. I can't even imagine what it's like to see an eagle swoop down and pick up a baboon. Got any pictures from your adventures? I'd love to see them. For whatever reason, the baboons never struck any of us as something we cared to shoot in the 1st place. They actually served as one hell of an early warning system for animals that were a MUCH greater concern. When you see 50 baboons start screaming and hauling ass up trees, there was ALWAYS a good reason. My time in Africa wont be repeated, for a bunch of reasons, but the last time I was there, it was possibly the best 3 months of my entire life. Climed Mt.Kilimanjaro, Mt.Kenya, hiked the Great Rift Valley for a couple hundred miles, hiked the Massai Mara for a couple hundred more, sailed the Indian Ocean with Somali fishermen and island hopped with them from Somalia, past Kenya, to Tansania...it was something else. The stories could fill a book...easily...which is the reward for shitting in a hole in the ground, bathing in rivers, eating who-knows-what, and saying goodbye to everything even remotely familiar in favor of the experience itself. I have a TON of photos, I'll have to dig around and see if I can find some of the better ones and post a few. Glad you enjoyed the read.

Sounds like a NOLS course- Semester in Africa perhaps?