On the last day of Phoenix's life, a young troop mate sits close to the year old baboon, as if to comfort her in her pain. Signs of a paintball hit to her temple are seen - the paintball shell fragments and paint fluid flowing down her face.
A photo taken a bit later, after the paintball fragments are somewhat degraded following Phoenix's headlong fall into a pool of water and grooming, indicative of the paintball strike having occurred not long before Baboon Matters took the photo (top) showing the young baboon holding her head.
Photos Courtesy Baboon Matters
Phoenix survived the 2017 fire in Da Gama Park, but sustained burns to her hands and feet.
She was seen separately by two NGO's, Baboon Matters and Tears Animal Rescue, a couple of days after the fire painfully dragging herself along the sand and making her way across a hot tar road.
Although both urged Phoenix be given veterinary help - as did concerned members of the public including via social media - this was not seen as necessary or expedient.
After Baboon Matters had noticed her condition was deteriorating, with the young baboon lying limply on a female's back, Jenni Trethowan was eventually granted permission to visit her, accompanied by a SPCA representative.
She took photos of the young female,. They not only revealed Phoenix's raw hands and digits dropping off her feet, but also showed the unmistakeable signs of her having been hit in the temple with a paintball. This in itself could serious injury to a young baboon's head, possibly a haemorrhage of the brain.
During the time Baboon Matters was there, the fragments and paint would begin to degrade after Phoenix fell into a puddle of water and was groomed by the female, an indication she had been paintballed that day, not long before being photographed. Perhaps also the reason she is holding her hand to her head and why the other baboon is sitting close to her to comfort her.
Her condition was officially stated to have 'taken a turn for the worst' that night and she died. Although the body was said not to have been found. (Baboons often carry their dead young around for days.)
The substance was later officially dismissed as an 'unknown substance' yet for those residents who have seen baboons paintballed on a daily basis in the urban areas, it bore all the signs of paintball shell fragments and painball fluid.
Along with the culling of baboons according to controversial protocols for eating unsecured food found in urban areas, or for entering unsecured properties, the failure to treat injured baboons timeously has been a cause for concern for residents since 2009. As has the ongoing so-called 'interim' solution of daily paintballing with on some occasions, other aggressive tools like bearbangers, rubber balls. pepper balls.
The introduction of aggressive tools had followed input and recommendations of researchers from BRU, a local baboon research unit. Justin O'RIain, from BRU had recommended the introduction of paintballing as an 'interim solution at a public meeting in early 2012 - his long term solution, electric fencing.
Pain and noise aversion "tools" were implemented on July 1, 2012, without any notification to residents. Residents were upset and angry, not knowing what was happening as terrified baboons ran around the streets pursued by paintballers by foot and vehicle.
A BRU researcher, Esme Beamish, oversaw the implementation during the first month. HWS, a new service provider took over the next month, August, 2012. HWS would introduce the concept of a 'landscape of fear' as the means of baboon management.
In 2018 use of the 'tools'', including bearbangers and paintballs, are now approaching the sixth year of use and are still upsetting residents and their pets. (Previously shouts and whistles were used effectively by monitors. These methods still work when used on occasion. )
Draft protocols are also being considered in 2018. Residents are concerned that they will take the lives of even more baboons, including more adult males. The Da Gama Park troop, Phoenix's troop, has lost many of its adult males including to culling for raiding in terms of controversial raiding protocols. Males are protectors of the young,
Baboon proofing of bins and houses, including burglar barring of less than 8cm over windows and doors remains the answer to solving the problem of 'raids; and thus avoiding conflict between baboons and humans.
