The spokesperson for the Department of Small Business Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs (Destea), Kgotso Tau, tells OFM News the baboon is in good health at the reserve, which is wedged between the Orange and Caledon Rivers near the Free State town of Bethulie. 

Destea is unable to trace the origin of the baboon, despite initial suspicions that it was being kept illegally by someone in Bloemfontein before it was spotted across the city from November 2020, until it was caught on 1 March.

Tau says there are only two possibilities regarding the origins of the baboon: it was either kicked out of its own troop or kept illegally in the city. 

It was one of the top matriculants, 18-year-old Cara Taljaard, and her mother Carina who discovered the baboon on Monday 1 March, after it had taken refuge underneath their red vehicle parked in the Liberty Building parking lot.

Cara told OFM News at the time:  “I was just approaching the car and I was actually on my phone texting. And I saw there was something in front of me, but I thought it was a shadow from a tree or something. Luckily I looked up, and when I realised what I saw and the thing was reaching out to me, I just yelled and told my mom there is a baboon underneath the car”. Her mother didn’t believe her, thinking her daughter was speaking of a monkey, but then she took a look herself and realised it was indeed a baboon.

Officials from the Department of Small Business Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs (Destea) were called in to rescue the animal. They sedated the baboon before taking it into their custody.

OFM News