A Tale of A Release

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.