The southern Peninsula's baboons are one decision away from survival or disappearance, even when a scientifically grounded, ethically defensible and ultimately inevitable solution is within such easy reach.

Twenty-five years ago, Dr Ruth Kansky and I began a programme that we believed would become a global model for urban wildlife coexistence: protecting the last wild baboons of the Cape Peninsula. We wrote the first comprehensive baboon management strategy for the Peninsula at the turn of the millennium, funded by the Table Mountain Fund, and set out a simple goal: keep baboons wild, keep people safe, and keep conflict tolerable on both sides of the fence.

Against all odds, the animals survived two decades of urban expansion, recreational pressure, shrinking habitat and intensifying human conflict. In many respects, the programme initially worked. When systematic counting began in the mid-2000s, there were roughly 248 baboons living in troops bordering urban areas. By 2020 that number had climbed to about 445, and by 2022 to just under 500, with estimates of 600 or more across about 16 to 17 troops on the wider Peninsula.

On paper, this looks like a conservation success. In reality, the story is a lot messier - and the baboons of the southern Peninsula are now closer to disappearing than at any point since this work began.

Today, authorities are actively considering the removal of the Waterfall...