Baboons

Mark, Jenny, and I set out for another adventurous day. Just as we were about to cross the one lane bridge, we witnessed a troop… a troop of baboons.

Scotty, our guide, decided to turn off the car and wait for the baboons, who were coming our way, to cross the bridge. We thought it might take just a few minutes, but baboon after baboon kept coming.

We loved watching them. There would be babies clinging to their mom’s underbelly, and babies clinging to their mom’s back. There were male baboons and female baboons, each of which was forging their own path. And…they kept coming.

The baboons weren’t silent either. While I’m not fluent in baboon speak, it was obvious they were communicating one with another. Thankfully none of them headed our way, but we knew they saw us. We were probably part of their conversation. As they spoke, they just continued traveling to their next destination. We sat in awe. Once they completely passed us, we moved on.

Baboons don’t generally mingle with humans, but we had quite the interaction. On this particular day, we had lunch in our vehicle. We only had lunch out in the bush when we were moving campsites. As luck would have it, new campsite day was upon us. Annelies (our cook and owner of Drumbeat Safaris) prepared the meal, and she packed it up for us. Our invitation to the campsite would come later in the day.

After a great morning on Safari, Scotty started looking for the right place to dine. He went to a location that he preferred, but when we got there, others were stopped and eating. He decided to drive us around the lake to the other side. It just so happened that there was a troop of baboons there.

We were not too concerned, so we pulled out a folding table and opened it up. We laid out the tablecloth, and placed all the different varieties of food atop it. Each one of us began with small portions, planning to return for seconds.

One by one we got our meal and found a seat. We were close to a lake that happened to be filled with crocodiles. Each one of us sat facing the lake, so we could look for the crocodiles and see what they were doing.

Within minutes of us sitting down this huge banging sound occurred behind us. I jumped and looked back to see the table previously full of food had been toppled over. In the midst of the mess was a baboon holding a container of pasta.

This upset Scotty for a couple of reasons. First, it let him know that these baboons had been socialized with humans more than he thought. Secondly, the baboon who stole the food would probably become bolder with future visitors the next time he was around humans and their food. Finally, it put an end to our fabulous feast.

Scotty started throwing sticks at the baboons to move them away from our area. They decided to move to a new location, and began to pass by the vehicle. Hanging back with us was the original party crasher. He was looking for more food.

Scotty continued to throw downed branches at him to get him to move on. Remember, these animals were unpredictable and wild, so Scotty knew it wasn’t safe for them to be near. Still, the baboon hung back. After at least ten minutes went by, the baboon decided it was time to move on with his troop before he lost them. He dropped the plastic container emptied of food and went on his way. We, of course, had a great story to tell when we finally made it to our new campsite. It was quite a day thanks to the baboons!