A recent posting on Facebook by a resident of Greyton, a town (and artists’ retreat) about 80 miles from Cape Town in South Africa, asked readers if they were wondering why they were not seeing baboons around or in Greyton.

The post noted that it was because of the “Baboon Monitors” pictured in the photo.   These are young men who have been hired by the community to help mitigate human-baboon conflict.  They have become experts on the behavior of the baboons and monitor them all the time.  Whenever the baboon troop decides that it is time to investigate the food sources in Greyton and the town dump, the Monitors escort them out in fifteen minutes.  It should be noted that the physical size of the Monitors’, especially when dressed in their bulky anoraks, is an important deterrent to the male baboons.  This service will ensure that the baboon-human conflict, which is a significant problem in South Africa, will be minimized.