A young female baboon named Tinki was euthanised after being injured in a hit-and-run in Tokai last Wednesday.
Animal activist groups and residents are appealing to motorists to drive slowly on Orpen Road, which is often visited by wildlife and passes through SANParks’ Tokai Park. They also want the City to implement traffic-calming measures on the road.
Lesley Leask, of Kommetjie, said she was driving back from Constantia when she saw a middle-aged blonde woman driving a dark blue Range or Land Rover hit Tinki.
“She knows she hit that little girl, I saw her face and reaction. You could hear the thumps as she hit the animal,” she wrote on the Kommetjie Kommunity Facebook group.
Veterinarian Dr Hamish Currie, who happened to be passing the scene, said he had found Tinki badly injured in a pool of blood.
“I stopped to evaluate the situation and realised this baboon needed care and first aid. I went to my practice to get some drugs to immobilise her, took her to the practice, where we took some X-rays and examined her. She was severely shocked and suffered a fractured pelvis, an abdominal hernia, thoracic contusions. It was too awful.”
According to Dr Currie, the most humane thing to do was to euthanise the animal.
“There was no other option. Basically she had a fractured pelvis, but there was also a pelvic displacement, which could have interfered with childbirth. If she fell pregnant at any one time, there could have been problems with her birth. I suspect she would have died anyway because she was in such extreme condition. She had a haemorrhage in her chest, and she was actually coughing up and vomiting blood.”
The SPCA is trying to trace the driver and has asked for witnesses to come forward.
“Proving intent, in this case, is extremely difficult, if not impossible. We have already received witness statements; however we do not have the registration number of the vehicle. Without a vehicle registration number, there is not much the SPCA or the police can do to trace the vehicle. If anyone can provide us with the registration number, then we will be very grateful if they come forward,” said SPCA chief inspector Jaco Pieterse.
Tokai Baboon Action Group members, like Debbie Tacon, have been volunteering to respond to reports of baboon sightings. They get to the roads and warn traffic to slow down.
Ms Tacon said she was alerted to the incident on the group’s site and arrived five minutes after Tinki had been hit. “There were other baboons around so I immediately got my flag and helped warn the traffic to get the rest of the baboons across the road. Then the NCC monitors (the City’s baboon-management contractors) arrived and we got them all across the road.”
Ms Tacon said baboons were frequently seen on Orpen Road, but the sightings had increased in the past few weeks.
“It is just recently that they have been coming down. One day last week, we got a call that they were just all over the road. NCC had a lot of monitors and management out there, they did a great job of getting them back, and it’s not easy because you’ve got cars that don’t want to slow down.”
Better signage, speed bumps, rumble strips or speeding entrapment were urgently needed on Orpen Road, she said.
“The City is going to have to step up to the plate and make better provision for speed control along that road. I mean it is not just baboons, it’s horses, it’s porcupines, it’s snakes, guinea fowls. There are two horse crossings on that road in a space about 400/500 metres. It takes a lot of wildlife traffic.”
It is a sentiment echoed by residents. Responding to a post on the Tokai Community Facebook group about Tinki’s death, Dennis Tucker said, “Orpen Road past The Range Function and Conference Centre needs speed bumps. Too many speedsters and everyone knows the baboons are likely around the area.”
Lorraine Jooste Erasmus, who lives near The Range, said, “The baboons frequently forage along the road. I wish we could have speed bumps at that corner because so many people come tearing around that corner.”
Jacques Mdr said it would be impossible to avoid an animal running into the road with a 60 km/h seed limit and a largely unsighted corner. “In fact a professional driver will tell you never to swerve to avoid a moving object. I agree what has happened is tragic.”
Mayoral committee member for spatial planning and environment Eddie Andrews said the City posted wildlife warning signs along Orpen Road and four other roads in June of last year.
“The new wildlife warning signage was installed along five roads in the south, namely: Rhodes Drive in Constantia, Constantia Road in Constantia, Orpen Road in Tokai, Noordhoek Road in Noordhoek, Simon’s Town Main Road in Simon’s Town.”
Orpen Road, as a minor arterial route, did not qualify for traffic-calming measures in terms of City policy, which prioritised areas frequented by children, the elderly and those with special needs, he said.
