Cape Town 2012-2013 - Flights, cars, tips and discussion

[Capie]

HIV stands for HUMAN Immunodeficiency virus. You can only get it from humans. SIMIAN Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV) is what baboons (the monkeys in the video) and monkeys can get. You can't get HIV from a person scratching or biting you. It takes quite a lot of fluid transfer to transmit HIV. Humans can't get SIV. No one really knows where AIDS comes from but there is a theory that SIV was transmitted to butchers through open wounds and then transmuted into HIV. It wouldn't be able to do that from a scratch or bite.

So, you definitely can't get HIV or AIDS from a baboon ... unless perhaps you chop up hundreds of them with your bare hands.

As to why we don't "take them away from popular spots", the baboons were there first and have as much right to stay there as we do. You'd have to kill them to move them away and though some people do want to do that, so far the conservationists are winning.

[Arf]

The boons are awesome to watch, just keep your doors and windows shut!

[paul2010]

HIV stands for HUMAN Immunodeficiency virus. You can only get it from humans. SIMIAN Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV) is what baboons (the monkeys in the video) and monkeys can get. You can't get HIV from a person scratching or biting you. It takes quite a lot of fluid transfer to transmit HIV. Humans can't get SIV. No one really knows where AIDS comes from but there is a theory that SIV was transmitted to butchers through open wounds and then transmuted into HIV. It wouldn't be able to do that from a scratch or bite.

So, you definitely can't get HIV or AIDS from a baboon ... unless perhaps you chop up hundreds of them with your bare hands.

As to why we don't "take them away from popular spots", the baboons were there first and have as much right to stay there as we do. You'd have to kill them to move them away and though some people do want to do that, so far the conservationists are winning.

man, I don't want to kill anyone, not even an ant
I am a little concerned about my personal safety and health, that's all.

[Capie]

man, I don't want to kill anyone, not even an ant
I am a little concerned about my personal safety and health, that's all.

Sorry, didn't mean you did. It's just that this is quite a major issue in Cape Town at the moment and it's fuelled by the city's idea that they need to protect tourists from baboons.

http://www.iol.co.za/scitech/science...5#.UZ3yYUokSKw

[paul2010]

since I am not a South African citizen probably I don't reserve the right to express my opinion how the SA authorities will handle this issue
but since I am a tourist I will say how I would feel more secure
I definitely disagree to kill the baboons
I don't feel comfortable when the are around me, when they climb on my car looking for joy or food and to this respect I need some distance

here is another interesting link about sharks

[Capie]

Yeah, I'm not that comfortable around them either. Is that enough of a reason though to move them? I think part of our problem as a society is that we don't know how to share our environment with others. We have this idea that we can control the environment exclusively, deciding which other species have access. Worse, we exclude other species not only for our survival but for our comfort.

[paul2010]

yes, it is the right thing to do so, move them somewhere else and let them live there,
you make a mistake here, you think about the animals as they were humans,