Three weeks to go until I head back to Colorado (well, begin
the very long journey back there at least!) Days here continue to be very long,
but luckily are filled, so at least there is something to do every second.
Sunday was an exciting day here at C.A.R.E., for very (very)
early that morning our release manager, Danny, took two adult males (Duck and Hutch) about four
and a half hours away from Phalaborwa to be released. An adult male around the
age of 7-9, if in the wild, would begin to separate himself from the rest of
his family troop at this age anyways so there is no better time but the
present. A troop with too many males will never work out as there can be only
one alpha and a couple young males without there being an enormous amount of
aggression. The wild troop here at C.A.R.E. (named Long Tits by the founder,
Rita), have one Alpha male: Dartania. Although he is the “head hauncho” around
here, there are still several other large and quite frightening males that are
part of the troop. Some of them are very aggressive (Shit Joe and Bottle
Stealer) and some of them are gentle giants (Vader-my absolute favorite).
A release of one to two males takes about a week. The
release manager will go out to the area with the two baboons in cages and will
really wait for the wild troop to get curious and come check out the new guys.
Although these two males have been in captivity, their natural instincts will
allow them to flourish in their new environment. So many of their behaviors are
instinctual-from knowing which animals are predators to which bushes are not ok
to eat. Slowly, they are introduced to the wild troop and to their new
surroundings outside of the cage. This all happens within the watchful eye of
Danny, who is there just in case anything goes wrong. Our hope is that these
recently released males will avoid populated areas, for the reason some
releases fail is due to the baboon being too trusting of humans or going into a
farming area- where he can be a danger to the people and to himself. C.A.R.E
never tags or microchips any of the baboons being released but we check up on
them every two weeks after a release to make sure they are ok. Danny, a trained
bushman who knows this area like the back of his hand, can spot one of our releases
very easily, so a quick checkup is never a problem.
We are all waiting anxiously to hear the results of this
newest release, and hopefully it is the first of many in the next couple of
months.
