Conflicts between baboons and humans surrounding wildlife reserves in Kenya could be improved by creating better compensation programs for the poorest farmers affected by primate rates.
“There’s evidence to say those people really need it and don’t deserve to be excluded [in compensation programs],” said TWS member Mackenzie Goode, who recently completed her master’s program at the University of Florida.
In ongoing work presented on a poster at The Wildlife Society’s virtual 2020 Annual Conference, Goode and her colleagues conducted surveys with 10 local farmers in central Kenya, north of Nairobi.
Olive baboon (Papio Anubis) troops can ruin entire crops in a single raid. “It had been increasing for the last couple of years because the drought was so bad in the area,” Goode said. Drought can drive the primates out of wildlife reserves in search of water supplies used by farmers and pastoralists in the area.
https://wildlife.org/tws2020-baboon-conflict-in-kenya/