By Roxanne Reid
You’re standing at the perimeter of one of the rest camps in our game reserves and you see someone throw his chop bone over the fence to lure a hyena or other animal. Do you join in and do the same, despite clear signs telling you not to? Or do you politely engage him to explain why feeding wild animals is a bad idea?
You’re standing at the perimeter of one of the rest camps in our game reserves and you see someone throw his chop bone over the fence to lure a hyena or other animal. Do you join in and do the same, despite clear signs telling you not to? Or do you politely engage him to explain why feeding wild animals is a bad idea?
Most of us who visit South Africa's game reserves and national parks regularly know it’s against the rules to feed the animals because if they start to see humans as a source of food they might become dangerous and have to be put down.
But did you know that if you’re caught you can be fined up to R400? And if you’re caught a second time you can be banned from any national park for six months?
Even though we know it’s against the rules to feed animals in a national park, some of us still do it in the hope of a private sighting along the fence or at a picnic site. This is despite warnings that feeding animals is like signing their death warrant because they start to see humans as a source of food. As a result, they might become dangerous and have to be put down.
‘Vervet monkeys and Chacma baboons are very easy to habituate by feeding, so they lose their natural fear of humans and become a real pest,’ says Joep Stevens of South African National Parks (SANParks). They can become so brazen at picnic sites that they’ll snatch food right out of your hand and go and eat it in a tree just a few metres away.
‘We’ve had cases of them threatening or even attacking guests at picnic spots, sometimes injuring the guests,’ he says. ‘They become problem animals and in most instances have to be destroyed.’
Baboons are clever enough to open your car doors too, so keep windows closed and doors locked if you have food in the car when you stop to watch them on your game drive.
But did you know that if you’re caught you can be fined up to R400? And if you’re caught a second time you can be banned from any national park for six months?
Even though we know it’s against the rules to feed animals in a national park, some of us still do it in the hope of a private sighting along the fence or at a picnic site. This is despite warnings that feeding animals is like signing their death warrant because they start to see humans as a source of food. As a result, they might become dangerous and have to be put down.
‘Vervet monkeys and Chacma baboons are very easy to habituate by feeding, so they lose their natural fear of humans and become a real pest,’ says Joep Stevens of South African National Parks (SANParks). They can become so brazen at picnic sites that they’ll snatch food right out of your hand and go and eat it in a tree just a few metres away.
‘We’ve had cases of them threatening or even attacking guests at picnic spots, sometimes injuring the guests,’ he says. ‘They become problem animals and in most instances have to be destroyed.’
Baboons are clever enough to open your car doors too, so keep windows closed and doors locked if you have food in the car when you stop to watch them on your game drive.
Baboons are wild creatures that should forage for their food, not get handouts from humans
Another problem is visitors who leave food in camp, on tables, in cupboards or unsecured rubbish bins. Primates aren’t the only offenders here. Honey badgers at Kruger’s Orpen and Satara camps got so clever that they could turn and open fridges to access the goodies inside – but SANParks outmanoeuvred them by fitting barred gates in front of fridges and cupboards. At Nossob in the Kgalagadi, jackals regularly damaged campers’ tents and stole food and leather items before a permanent gate was installed and the fences were monitored regularly for holes.
This is the price we have to pay to invade their wild environment, so we shouldn’t add to the problem by deliberately feeding animals. That’s why the rules are there. That’s why SANParks can fine you up to R400 if you’re caught.
What if you don’t learn your lesson and repeat the offence?
‘If a person persists then we bar them from entering our parks for six months,’ says Mbongeni Tukela, Area Integrity Manager at Kruger. ‘We communicate this information to reservations so they can block them from any of our parks during that period.’
This is the price we have to pay to invade their wild environment, so we shouldn’t add to the problem by deliberately feeding animals. That’s why the rules are there. That’s why SANParks can fine you up to R400 if you’re caught.
What if you don’t learn your lesson and repeat the offence?
‘If a person persists then we bar them from entering our parks for six months,’ says Mbongeni Tukela, Area Integrity Manager at Kruger. ‘We communicate this information to reservations so they can block them from any of our parks during that period.’
Spotted hyenas will quickly learn that camp fences are a source of braai scraps
Stevens cautions that it’s not only the animals with big teeth and claws we have to worry about. ‘Habituated animals, whether they’re primates, warthog or bushbuck seemingly at peace inside a camp or picnic site are still wild animals and can attack whoever is close by at any time,’ he says. ‘Many years back in Skukuza a couple were enjoying a braai at their chalet around sunset when a spotted hyena came on its fence patrol to beg for food scraps. A warthog that was inside the camp became agitated by the hyena’s presence. Without much warning it attacked the innocent woman at the braai, inflicting nearly fatal wounds as its razor-sharp lower tusk sliced open her upper leg.’
Think about that next time you ask yourself what harm you’re doing by throwing your chop bone over the fence.
More conservation and environmental issues
Like it? Pin this image!
Think about that next time you ask yourself what harm you’re doing by throwing your chop bone over the fence.
More conservation and environmental issues
Like it? Pin this image!
Copyright © Roxanne Reid - No words may be used without written permission from roxannereid.co.za
