Steven Muller is a wonderful guide who I have worked with for a long time! Besides being extremely knowledgeable, he has a very pleasant personality and is loved by all who have had the pleasure of his knowledge and company.
Now, everyone knows that baboons can be dangerous and that windows and car doors should be locked at all times when baboons are around!
Steven’s story:
I had three clients from Hong Kong on a Peninsula tour. The lady in the group loved and was fascinated by baboons, hence her coming to Cape Town and down to the Cape Point area to see them – if she was lucky. Well, we were very lucky and saw a troop at the ostrich farm just before we entered the Cape of Good Hope reserve. They were right beside the car and I of course cautioned her to keep the doors locked and windows closed – or if slightly open, the windows had to be on the latch. Baboons are actually able to open car doors and will get into cars through open windows or by actually opening doors, even when people are in the car. This is because they associate people with food, and as people are in cars there should be food in there! She took many photos through the slightly open window, which was on a latch.
We eventually went for lunch in the reserve and on leaving the reserve after lunch we can across another troop of baboons coming towards us on a side road. The same lady was sitting in the middle seat behind me, her husband in the rear seat and a younger gentleman up front next to me. The baboons were a long way off and we were parked waiting for them to get right up to us. She had opened her window and was filming with her head out of the window with a large lens. I was chatting to the guy upfront about various things as she was filming and the baboons were getting closer. I was not paying attention to her at the window as she knew the rules.
All of a sudden there was a scream from her husband in the back seat. I turned around and saw a small female baboon sitting on the seat in the same row as the lady, who I couldn’t see at all! I let out a loud shout at the baboon who promptly turned her head to look at me, looked back at the man in the rear seat and then just casually climbed out of the open window. The wife’s head now came into my view – she had been looking in her camera bag on the floor for another lens as the baboons were getting closer and was struggling to get the lens on for some reason. Because of the baboon’s very quick action the lady didn’t even realize or see what happened! Needless to say the husband thought this was so funny as it happened but had some choice words for his wife regarding her lack of ‘baboon awareness’.
Fortunately no harm was done to the animal or to any of us, and it was certainly a highlight of their trip!
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