Tern-eating Baboons in Rooi-Els
Christie Craig(2015-08-18)
This week we received an interesting recovery of a Swift Tern from Rooi-Els
(Ring number: 5H53976). Helen Jones found the bird beheaded and suspected that it had met the same fate as some previous terns (See Promerops September 2013). Locals have seen baboons taking out terns and eating them. Baboons are omnivores, their diets consist of mainly shoots, fruit, seeds and roots but they will take meat from time to time. Meat is usually taken by males and by the more dominant members of the troop (see
article ). There are also records of
flamingos being taken as well as ground nesting bird
fledglings. This particular bird was a juvenile and it is likely that most terns that are taken by baboons are young birds. If you have witnessed baboons killing and eating birds, we would be interested to hear about it.