Baboons plague South Africa wine country

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, Aug. 29 (UPI) -- The wine country around Cape Town has become used to throngs of tipsy tourists, but baboons are driving vintners crazy, South African officials say.

At the 325-year-old Groot Constantia vineyard, dozens of cape baboons gather daily to strip the ancient vines before heading into the mountains to sleep, manager Jean Naude told the Sunday Telegraph of London.

"They are not just eating our grapes; they are raiding our kitchens and ripping the thatch off the roofs. They are becoming increasingly bold and destructive," Naude said.

It is not just South Africa's vineyards that are under siege, but the posh suburb of Constantia, home to Nelson Mandela and Earl Spencer, the late British Princess Diana's brother.

The baboons lived in the mountains long before humans, but development has pushed them into closer contact.

Before laws gave the primates protected status, troublesome ones were often killed or maimed by homeowners and farmers. Now "baboon monitors" capture them and guide them away from residential areas, the newspaper said.

In a concession to beleaguered residents, wildlife authorities have begun collaring baboons identified as "troublesome" and imposed a "three strikes" rule under which animals that repeatedly break into homes are destroyed.