Baboon mauls four-year-old boy

By Temba Dube
Chronicle August 25, 2008



A FOUR-YEAR-OLD boy from Matobo, miraculously escaped death on Friday when he was mauled by a baboon, amid reports that the population of baboons has ballooned in the district in recent years.
The gruesome incident occurred at Njelele village in Natisa.
“The victim suffered three very deep gashes on his skull and had a three-centimetre deep hole in his neck. The baboon’s tooth in fact narrowly missed the boy’s jugular vein,†said a nurse from Natisa Clinic.
The boy’s grandmother, Mrs Sibonginkosi Moyo, met Chronicle as she was taking her grandson to Maphisa District Hospital.
The boy had been referred there from Natisa Clinic and had a blood soaked bandage around his head.
She said her grandchildren had gone to routinely chase baboons from near their homestead, when she heard screams from them.
“At around nine in the morning, I heard the other children shouting that a baboon had snatched Mthandazo, my grandson. I rushed to the scene and found the animal standing over him. It had opened his skull and was biting and slapping him repeatedly. His face was a bloody mask and he was not moving,†she said.
Mrs Moyo said when she tried to scare away the baboon, it ignored her and only ran away when some men from nearby homes arrived at the scene.
Mthandazo was rushed to Natisa Clinic where his wounds were cleaned and bandaged and then, he was referred to Maphisa District Hospital because some of his wounds needed stitching.
Njelele villagers expressed shock and disbelief over the incident saying baboons rarely attack human beings.
They said baboons had of late become daring and were killing their goats and chickens adding that the population of the animals seemed to have increased.
Mr Benson Moyo, a villager said two years ago the villagers resolved that the baboons should be culled but that decision was later rescinded by the “village elders†on cultural grounds.
“We once agreed that some of the baboons should be killed because they had become too many but elders from the village refused. They said it was taboo to kill them and such action would result in severe drought and countless natural disasters,†said Mr Moyo.
The villagers said the boy was lucky that the baboon did not pluck out his eyes because that is what baboons normally start with when they kill something.
They also said everytime they reported the baboons menace to the parks and wildlife personnel, they were told to identify the individual offending baboons so that they could be dealt with.
“Identifying individual baboons is impossible as they all look alike when they travel in groups,†said one of the villagers.
The spokesperson for the Parks and Wildlife Department, Retired Major Edward Mbewe could not be reached for comment yesterday.
An official from the department, who declined to be named, however said killing some of the baboons was a feasible option as they had become too many.
“They should be culled because when they become too many, they fail to get enough food and when they are hungry, they can do anything if they are provoked, like retaliating when they are harassed by people,†said the official.
Last week, the venarcular publication, uMthunywa carried a story about Njelele villagers who were killing baboons by setting dogs on them.

Should we add them to the Big 5, Dangerous 7? Call them the Terrorizing 8?

quote:

Originally posted by L. David Keith:


Should we add them to the Big 5, Dangerous 7? Call them the Terrorizing 8?

Shit, that is one 'FUGLY' sonofabitch, wouldn't want that creature hanging off your scrotum!!