Wire report

‘It’s hard to sell a house when it’s covered in baboon faeces’: Cape Town divided over plan to remove its monkeys

Two troops of chacma baboons are breaking into homes and shops but animal rights activists insist coexistence is the answer Cape Town’s city council has said it will “imminently” round up two baboon troops coming into repeated conflict with residents . The animals will be sterilised and permanently moved to a newly constructed sanctuary. The plan has been fiercely criticised by animal rights activists, who say the monkeys should remain roaming freely, and that less destructive options have not been properly considered. Cape Town’s baboon problem has been brewing since the 2000s, after the city stopped culling troops in the late 1990s after pressure from the public. But in the past two years it has reached boiling point. A 2025 census found that the population had grown by a third since 2000, from 360 baboons to 493, now living in 12 managed troops. Continue reading...

Image from linked report: ‘It’s hard to sell a house when it’s covered in baboon faeces’: Cape Town divided over plan to remove its monkeys
Image from the linked report: ‘It’s hard to sell a house when it’s covered in baboon faeces’: Cape Town divided over plan to remove its monkeys.Credit: The Guardian Thumbnail shown with attribution and outbound source link; VINI does not claim ownership or republish the original article body. Image source Image shown with attribution and an outbound source link; VINI does not claim ownership or republish the original article body.
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Why it mattersGlobal

Two troops of chacma baboons are breaking into homes and shops but animal rights activists insist coexistence is the answer Cape Town’s city council has said it will “imminently” round up two baboon troops coming into repeated conflict with residents . The animals will be sterilised and permanently moved to a newly constructed sanctuary. The plan has been fiercely criticised by animal rights activists, who say the monkeys should remain roaming freely, and that less destructive options have not been properly considered. Cape Town’s baboon problem has been brewing since the 2000s, after the city stopped culling troops in the late 1990s after pressure from the public. But in the past two years it has reached boiling point. A 2025 census found that the population had grown by a third since 2000, from 360 baboons to 493, now living in 12 managed troops. Continue reading...

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What happened

According to The Guardian’s source item, ‘It’s hard to sell a house when it’s covered in baboon faeces’: Cape Town divided over plan to remove its monkeys, Two troops of chacma baboons are breaking into homes and shops but animal rights activists insist coexistence is the answer Cape Town’s city council has said it will “imminently” round up two baboon troops coming into repeated conflict with residents . The animals will be sterilised and permanently moved to a newly constructed sanctuary. The plan has been fiercely criticised by animal rights activists, who say the monkeys should remain roaming freely, and that less destructive options have not been properly considered. Cape Town’s baboon problem has been brewing since the 2000s, after the city stopped culling troops in the late 1990s after pressure from the public. But in the past two years it has reached boiling point. A 2025 census found that the population had grown by a third since 2000, from 360 baboons to 493, now living in 12 managed troops. Continue reading…

Context

The development sits in VINI’s Global file for readers following international affairs, institutions, conflict, diplomacy, economics, and cross-border consequences. The original report is linked so readers can check the source account, follow later updates, and compare new coverage against the first published record. The source item is dated 2026-09-27T11:00:03+00:00.

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Primary source: ‘It’s hard to sell a house when it’s covered in baboon faeces’: Cape Town divided over plan to remove its monkeys via The Guardian. VINI cites and links the source; it does not reproduce the publisher’s full article text without rights clearance.

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