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Adaptive space use by baboons (Papio ursinus) in response to management interventions in a human‐changed landscape

Growing human populations are increasingly competing with wildlife for limited resources and this can result in chronic human–wildlife conflict. In the Cape Peninsula, South Africa, chacma baboons Papio ursinus are habitual raiders of urban and rural areas, foraging on a variety of human‐derived foods. Raiding behaviour is considered a threat to human health and safety, may result in damage to property, and has adverse welfare and conservation impacts on baboons. To mitigate this conflict, Cape Town municipality employs field rangers with paintball markers that ‘herd’ baboons away from the urban edge. While this strategy is successful in reducing the time baboons spend in urban spaces, baboons still raid successfully. Here, we use direct observation and GPS data to investigate how one troop uses the peri‐urban space and exploits human‐derived foods in urban areas and on farmland. We contrast this behaviour with the individual management strategies adopted by field rangers which we assessed in individual interviews. We find that baboons utilize space (1) where inter‐individual variation in field ranger management strategy is highest, (2) that is close to refuges in forested habitat and (3) that is close to the urban edge. Overall, this suggests adaptive space use by the baboons, whereby they minimize distances to refuges and potential food rewards, while exploiting uncertainty in risk variability that arises due to inter‐individual differences in ranger management strategy. Together these results highlight the need for ranger consensus to reinforce management efficiency when dealing with a highly adaptive primate.