Dominant Alpha male baboon planned for euthanasia given lifeline

The Cape Peninsula Baboon Management Joint Task Team (CPBMJTT) has given a dominant alpha male baboon a lifeline, saying that plans to put him down were off the table. 

This comes after conservation advocates raised concerns over the planned euthanasia of Martello, the alpha male of the Seaforth baboon troop, following the release of the Final Baboon Action Management Plan. 

The plan released last week was signed and approved by SANParks, CapeNature, and the City of Cape Town and aimed at establishing a “healthy, well-managed, sustainable, free-ranging baboon population with minimal human interference, overlap and conflict and a reduction in day-to-day aversive measures”.

The plan includes building a sanctuary, fencing, a waste strategy, Wildlife by-law and by-law enforcement and population control. 

The maximum sub-population number for the northern troops is set at 250 at any given time. If the upper population limits are exceeded for longer than six months, “animals will be humanely euthanised to achieve these outcomes”.

“Animals targeted for euthanasia will include chronically sick, permanently injured and very old individuals as identified in the monthly troop counts,” the CPBMJTT, last week, said.  

Carol Knox, a member of and researcher for Green Group, Simons Town's case study on non-aversive coexistence monitoring, lamented that while the plan confirmed the Seaforth troop would be relocated to a sanctuary enclosure, healthy males vasectomised and released, one excerpt “explicitly supports Martello’s euthanasia, citing vague urban interactions”. 

“This contradiction, removing a healthy alpha male before sanctuary relocation, which will be exceedingly stressful for the troop family unit undermines troop cohesion and will cause considerable distress. Martello’s caregiving, emotional depth, and trust in monitors exemplify the very traits that humane management should protect,” Knox said. 

She said she had reviewed extensive documentation of Martello’s behaviour. 

“In July 2024, Martello rescued juvenile Kabili after she fell through razor wire during a panic induced by NCC Environmental Services. He carried her across a main road and placed her at the feet of a trusted monitor—an act of cross-species trust and caregiving rarely observed in wild primates. Following her recovery, Martello retrieved Kabili again, reaffirming his role as protector. Photographs document Martello engaging in play with Kabili, Cairo, and Marco, evidencing strong paternal bonds and the social complexity of chacma baboon societies. In September 2023, after juvenile Shadow was fatally shot in a Simonstown home, Martello and Mary (Shadow’s mother) returned repeatedly to the site of the killing for months. This prolonged grief response only ceased once the troop was relocated to natural roosting sites,” said Knox. 

In response to Knox's concerns, the CPBMJTT confirmed Martello would not be put down. 

“The CPBMJTT can confirm that the euthanasia of the dominant male of the Seaforth troop is not being considered at this point in time.” 

Cape Times