In a week that saw more sad news for the Cape Peninsula’s chacma baboon troops, the Cape of Good Hope SPCA Wildlife Department returned one to her troop.
When the SPCA’s Wildlife Department got a Saturday afternoon call about an injured juvenile baboon in Seaforth, Simon’s Town, it was with a sense of foreboding that our wildlife officers went to respond.
Images circulated on baboon spotter WhatsApp groups showed a young female baboon, lying motionless on wet tar, bright red blood streaming from a gash above her eye, the eye itself an angry purple, swollen mass. There wasn’t a lot of hope that this one would end happily as head trauma and eye in juries in baboons is so often fatal. It is very much accepted that baboons on the urban edge need both eyes (and a pair on the back of their heads too, if possible), to help avoid the many dangers they routinely face navigating the urban space.
It quickly became apparent that the injured animal was one they call Kabili, believed to be the last remaining female heir of the alpha male of the Seaforth troop.
Back at the SPCA hospital she was assessed, the gash above her eye cleaned and x-rays taken to check for broken bones. Her injury was suspected to have been a result of a fall from height, perhaps the result of a mis-timed leap off a ledge of a building during the storms that had pelted Cape Town that past week.
A robust regimen of pain management, good food and cage rest was prescribed by the attending veterinarians. As the days ticked by, her injuries began to respond to treatment and little by little, the swelling around her eye socket subsided. SPCA staff could do nothing but hold their breath to see if there was anything left of the eyeball beneath once the swelling went down. Five days later and a decision has to be made; give her more time to heal, or accept that her wounds were too great to recover from.
On the day of decision, she showed her carers that she was made of tougher stuff and for the first time since being admitted, the rich brown of her iris could be seen beneath a still bruised eyelid – there was hope.
The days that followed saw her recovery advance at speed and with every day of healing, she began to return to her old rambunctious self, tentatively testing out her climbing and jumping skills on the special enrichment provided for just this very thing, all the while calling for her troop and her beloved dad and troop leader Martello.
On the tenth day of her healing, with her injured eye now fully visible and in use, she was given the veterinary all-clear to go back home.
Her release was carefully planned and executed with military precision so as to minimise any further injury to herself or those attending to her release. Getting caught between a big alpha male and his offspring, is something nobody wants to have happen to them.
At the carefully chosen release, she scampered out of her carrier box the moment the door was opened, shimmied up a drainpipe and onto the roof of the nearest suitable building and began frantically calling out to her dad. A few hundred meters away, the unmistakable answering bark of an alpha male baboon echoed through the navy buildings and Martello appeared, cautious but with the unmistakable air of an alpha about him. Kabili’s mother followed a few paces behind. He sauntered across the asphalt to the building where Kabili sat calling, oblivious to the gathered crowd of spectators, spider-climbed the building’s wall like a Marvel superhero and crossed the roof to his daughter, her squeals of pure delight at having her dad come to her rescue drawing a spontaneous cheer from the gathered onlookers.
“It’s not often that we get to restore something so fragile back into Nature, stronger than it was when it left, so this was a very special moment for all,” commented SPCA Wildlife Supervisor and Kabili care-giver Jon Friedman.
