An ambitious effort to eradicate invasive spotted bass from South Africa’s Breekkrans River has unfolded about two hours north of Cape Town. Removing the bass has helped give the critically endangered doring fiery redfin (Pseudobarbus doring) a fighting chance against extinction. “Spotted bass were introduced into the river system in the late 1930s,” Martine Jordaan, a faunal ecologist at Cape Nature, a provincial conservation authority, told Mongabay in a video call. “The main reason was to have a species that was good for angling. What makes bass a good angling fish makes it a bad invader. It really goes after the small fish, and most of our native fish are 12 centimeters [4.7 inches] and smaller.” Jordaan said that after the bass species had been introduced, it spread as far as the habitat allowed, only stopping when encountering natural barriers such as waterfalls. “Often you find that native fish populations [are restricted to] streams where bass cannot invade,” Jordaan said. That was the case with the doring fiery redfin. “The Breekkrans River has the largest remaining population of doring fiery redfin with probably a few hundred adults,” Jeremy Shelton, a freshwater conservation ecologist working at the Freshwater Research Centre (FRC), told Mongabay by email. “The species also exists in another river, but in very low numbers.” Prior to the spotted bass eradication, the doring fiery redfin were confined to a 2-kilometer (1.2-mile) stretch of the Breekkrans River that remained bass-free. The Breekkrans River Restoration Project is run by the FRC…This article was originally published on Mongabay

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — A steady stream of chacma baboons flows down the walking path in the beautiful wooded ravine that leads up to Admiral’s Kloof, on the slopes of Table Mountain National Park. The score of baboons (Papio ursinus) descending the ravine — half of the 44-strong Waterfall troop — are on their way to raid the naval barracks at the bottom, in the affluent suburb of Simon’s Town. A baboon monitor with a paintball gun slung over his shoulder stands and watches as a car marked “Shark Spotters”, the name of the NGO responsible for the monitors, pulls up to transport three of his colleagues to try and head them off. On this particular June morning, the effort is futile. The sound of the monitors’ paintball guns and the screeching of juvenile baboons fighting over choice morsels fills the air for 45 minutes, while the agile primates scale trees and buildings, and grab what looks like a bag of cereal from an unattended kitchen on the base. While the monitors manage to get some of the baboons out of the barracks, others move toward the surrounding suburb. Simon’s Town, the harbour, and the red brick walls of the Waterfall Barracks as seen from Admiral’s Kloof. Image by Barry Christianson for Mongabay. A WhatsApp group set up by the Cape Baboon Partnership to alert residents about the whereabouts of the troop, recorded 25 such raids between June 11 and July 11. Cape Town city officials are ready to…This article was originally published on Mongabay