Strange

Baboons Carjack Tourists

by Jordan Yerman | March 16, 2009 at 08:28 am

363 views | 2 Recommendations | 2 comments

When you drive down the Cape Point in South Africa, you will pass through a nature preserve that's home to a troop of Cape Baboons. They're fascinating creatures that are really comfortable around people. Do not feed them. They will carjack you.

Recently, some American tourists inadvertently made headlines when they made the rookie mistake of feeding wild animals. The animals, being wild, will take a mile if given an inch. I've actually witnessed this: it happens really quickly, and these baboons (which can bench press something like 400lbs) climb into the victim's car and pretty much destroy it in a matter of moments.

I have photos of these marauding monkeys somewhere, which I'm trying to find (they're pre-Flickr).

The Cape Times reported a group of American tourists got out of their car to photograph the animals, and their children tried to pet them, when several members of the troop jumped into their car and started eating their food.

A large male baboon also accessed a separate car through an open window, removing food from the cubbyhole.

Tour operators exacerbated the problem by throwing food to baboons to provide perfect picture opportunities for their clients, the newspaper said.

While baboons aren't known for their motoring skills, they can actually get the car into neutral, which can cause it to end up in a ditch. By that point, though, it doesn't matter, since the interior will be so badly damaged that you'll never get your rental deposit back.

"We will also be holding a baboon summit soon."

Good luck with that... Cape Baboons are not known for negotiating.

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foleymarq

at 09:35 on March 16th, 2009

A group of baboons stopped traffic while we were driving through Cape of Good Hope Park. The large male actually opened the door of the white van in front of us and almost jumped inside before the people inside shut it again. Interesting moment...

foleymarq has contributed a photo to this story.

picaddict

at 11:29 on March 16th, 2009

Yes the people are stupid. I saw so many rubbish on that place and the baboons eating the plastic stuff. The tourists should know how dangerous that is for the animals...