Baboon vs Baboon - 1:0 Ouch!

I came across these pics (not very good quality Im sorry) I took about a month ago, of a baboon (Bafana I think his name is).

He was quite badly injured in a fight with another male baboon. The event itself was quite traumatic with me trying to keep my dog out of it (poor lab was trying to protect her house - and almost getting killed in the process), keep my kids safe, and still deal with the injured baboon in my garden. 

It started with the two baboons throwing each other off the top of my neighbours roof, through his greenhouse roof. There was then a tussle and the injured baboon jumped over into my garden, leaving the other to deal with the dog next door (chuckle - boerbull [spelling?]). The poor bugger was then trapped in my garden unable to get out as his leg was so badly injured.

At first he was bleeding so much I thought he was going to die soon. At one point he even seemed to "faint" as he tried to stand up. The inherant intelligence of this animal really shon through as he quickly established I was no longer a threat, and almost seemed to be coming for help, moving slowly towards me. I know people often incorrectly humanise animals, but these guys are really clearly quite closely related to us; On the criminal side of the family, but related nonetheless. 

We contacted the agency responsible for looking after the baboons in the area and told them about what had happened. To my amazement (after having about 8 baboon monitors traipse through our garden with a collective -"umm - OK - what now") they decided that since it was a baboon on baboon attack, they would not intervene, and left the baboon in our garden, unable to get out. We were horrified at the prospect of having to explain to our already traumatised children why we hadn't done more (we didn't think he was going to survive the night). 

I was requested to leave the baboon and not help or intervene in any way. Eek. My poor dog was locked in the garage, and I watched the poor guy amble around our garden. I was then phoned to take a few pics to document this event (you see the results here) but the light was almost completely gone - hence the quality - and I didn't want to get to close and agitate him at all [excuses for crappy pics].

Amazingly this guy, after drinking a bit of pool water and gathering his thoughts, was able to move a camping chair and a log against the wall, and by climbing onto the chair was able to use the log to get over the wall, where he spent the night across the road. 

To our relief however, he survived the night. Two days later a vet gave him some antibiotics for the wound, and about a week ago I saw him hobbling along the road. He is still quite badly injured, but seems to be well enough considering.


End of that particularly odd chapter.