Hi all. Thanks so much for the engaging replies!
Anne, Which mountains do you live in?
South Africa has a few different ranges - I live in the Cape Fold mountains, which formed through continental collision when the Pangea super continent formed. They are old, and layered, and although the larger mammals no longer live here (hippo, rhino, elephant, lion etc) they still host the most wonderful of natural ecosystems. I will post some photos later to give you some idea of the landscape.
Carla, panthers are a perfect analogue for leopards - not sure how similar cougar behaviour is. Our primary hope is to ensure our resident big cats are safe and thriving. I do not suspect that we will have any "issues" with them as our goats are kept close and will have a guardian - they are very shy of humans & dogs.
The smaller cats - caracals, civets, and serval - on the other hand, may be a challenge for our chickens.
Baboons are in a class of their own!
We have an unusually large group that live on the land we now steward and traverse to our neighbouring farms almost daily to forage.
Our commercial farm neighbours cannot afford the damage they sometimes do to their orchards, so the relationship is very antagonistic however, they do not "hate" the baboons and would be willing to change their ways if we can significantly reduce the damage caused.
I know that the solution will need to be multi-faceted and will be an ongoing project for many years. We plan to train a small team of baboon monitors who are able to track them daily to collect essential data on movement patterns, hierarchy structure, interpersonal relationships etc.
We will also need to develop wildlife corridors to ensure they are able to still reach the rescources within their territory.
Over time the hope is that the baboon monitors (along with deterrents and incentives) will be able to route the baboons to these corridors and at the very least warn the farmers of when the baboons are heading towards their orchards.
I will definitely create a thread (probaby in the Africa forum, unless there is a better place?) to share our efforts and progress in this regard.
Alder, you could not be more correct about settling in the wilderness - I am constantly hearing Bill in my head: "We have no business there".
For a number of reasons (which I am very happy to discuss if anyone is interested) including legal, socio-economic & historical, this was the land we were called to steward.
The sale was finalised in late 2019. We moved, right before COVID lockdowns began, to a rental property ~40km from the land. We would have loved to just move on to the land, put up a small structure and go from there but.. with a land this rugged and large, there is MUCH to observe, at so many scales, that it took us 18months to even locate the quadrant of the land in which a homestead is viable. It took another 6 months to locate the very first structure. We have also identified the priority areas where our intervention can be most beneficial to restoring and improving the quality of native ecosystems and the services they provide.
Moving into the wilderness, with a permaculture heart...is difficult and slow. But we are committed to being more than net positive to this land.
