Baboon Boon!

Our friends (whose house we braaied at on Friday) live in an area which is frequented by baboons! During the winter, the baboons come down out of the less reachable areas of the mountain, in search of food, and can frequently be seen being chased from houses. Our friends were telling us that their neighbors who are away on extended leave in the UK, had their house broken into by a pack of very clever baboons! Whilst my friend and her daughter watched from the safety of an upstairs window, her husband went to try and head them off out of the neighbors house. They had been clever enough to take a glass door off it's hinges and lay it aside. They then set about destroying the kitchen, breaking into cupboards and getting at things like dried pasta. One of the baboons spotted my friends husband (who was no doubt brandishing a large stick at this point), and head off over the roof with a box of cornflakes in his mouth. The rest of the troop obviously thought that this was quite a find, and gave chase. Although we live less than 10 minutes drive from these friends, we don't have the same problem with marauding baboons and thank god. They can be very viscious. Thank goodness there is a group of guys who are privately funded called 'the Mountain Men' who are employed full time to make sure that no harm comes to the baboons - or the people whom they harrass. It reminds me of the grizzly bears in Canada, who were smart enough to work out how garbage cans worked that had handles that you press down to open. Talk about evolution on the fast track!