Cape Town • Wildlife management technology

LET THE
BABOONS
STAY WILD.

A smarter way to manage the boundary between Cape Town's wild baboons and the urban environment.

Explore the troops →How BoonFence works
Wild baboons in the Cape Peninsula at sunset
The idea

The fence moves.

BoonFence brings together GPS tracking, virtual geofencing and graduated deterrence to manage where baboon troops move.

Instead of attempting to build an impenetrable physical fence around wild animals, BoonFence proposes a flexible digital boundary that can be adapted as troop behaviour, habitat and natural food availability change.

How it works

One system.
A moving boundary.

01 / TRACK

Locate the troop

GPS-enabled wildlife collars provide location information from selected members of a troop.

02 / DEFINE

Draw the boundary

Operators establish a virtual managed range without constructing a permanent physical barrier.

03 / DETER

Warn and discourage

An approaching animal can receive an audio warning followed, where appropriate and legally permitted, by a brief electrical pulse.

Baboon inside a modern kitchen

When the boundary disappears

Homes can become part of a troop's foraging environment.

Several baboons raiding a colourful kitchen

The result can be chaos.

Damage, food raids and conflict affect both residents and wildlife.

Cape Peninsula

Know the troops.
Manage the movement.

BoonFence is conceived as a troop-by-troop management platform, giving operators a shared view of troop territories, GPS positions and virtual boundaries.

BoonFence Cape Peninsula troop management map concept
“The technology already exists.
The opportunity is to apply it to a new problem.”

BoonFence is a proposed startup seeking development, wildlife, veterinary, research and funding partners.

Two baboons walking down a Cape Peninsula suburban road

Protect communities.

Reduce the opportunity for urban raids while retaining wild habitat.

Baboons playing in suburban swimming pools

Keep wildlife wild.

The objective is coexistence — not turning the mountain into a zoo.

The next step

Let's build Cape Town's virtual baboon fence.

BoonFence is currently a development concept. The next stage is a properly monitored field programme to evaluate the approach.

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