Baboons (Willie and Nonna) safely captured after hitching a ship from Cape Town to Durban

CapeTalk's Lester Kiewit speaks to Clint Halkett-Siddall of the Centre for Rehabilitation of Wildlife (CROW).

Listen below:

Two juvenile baboons, Willie (male) and Nonna (female), recently caused a stir in Durban after escaping into the city.

It’s believed the pair secretly boarded a vessel in Simon’s Town, Cape Town, and disembarked when it docked at Durban harbour. The exact circumstances of how they managed to board the ship remain unclear.

Nonna was the first to be safely captured on Wednesday (24 September) by CROW. Willie remained at large for another day before being lured with treats and rescued in the Malvern area on Thursday, 25 September.

Both baboons are now safe and receiving care at CROW's facilities. They will remain there for some time while authorities work on securing the necessary permits to return them to the Cape and ideally reunite them with their original troop.

If reintegration isn’t possible, the baboons will be placed in a species-specific rehabilitation program where they’ll gradually be introduced to a new troop.

“Their destiny is to go back into the wild where they belong," says Halkett-Siddall.

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