Gangs attack the people and raise terror What is the story of the "pandemic" of baboons in Saudi Arabia?

The Saudis and the official authorities recently expressed their growing concern over the unprecedented incursion of groups of baboons into farms and populated areas, causing riots, and attacking visitors and tourists, thus causing panic and terror in the hearts of many.

Watching and petting baboons was a favorite and enjoyable thing for many Saudis and tourists alike. Those who used to go in particular to the areas where this species of monkeys is found, especially the mountainous areas, to get to know them closely and enjoy playing with them.

But during the last ten years, baboons began to leave the mountainous areas, invade agricultural areas and intrusion into populated areas, causing a lot of material losses to farmers, and causing panic among parents and children, who are constantly exposed to its fierce attacks.

Recently, many clips spread on social networking sites have documented cases of harassment and assault by baboon gangs on people, which necessitated the official authorities to direct local authorities to take measures and measures to prevent the phenomenon from exacerbating.

Baboons intimidation, theft and vandalism

Baboons are usually found in the mountainous regions located in the southwest of the Kingdom, especially Al-Baha and Abha. However, because of its search for food, it left its areas, towards farms, villages and residential areas, and began to multiply there, with large numbers of them invading these populated areas.

According to the testimonies of the people, these monkeys arrive in the form of gangs and groups of 10 or 20 monkeys, sometimes up to 100, and attack farms and destroy them and spoil their crops. Drinking water, infiltrating homes, wreaking havoc and terrorizing their inhabitants.

The “scarecrows” set up everywhere by farmers whose crops had been damaged were not enough to terrify these animals, which had become accustomed to people, thanks to their petting, and dared to approach them and even attack them.

It seems that this animal is well aware that schools can also find something to eat, so large groups of baboons often went to schools and attacked students and stole food from their bags, causing fear and panic for them.

Many video clips on social media have documented many cases of abuse carried out by monkeys, whether on people or passers-by on highways, who attacked them in the form of bandits, and robbed travelers’ possessions while they were stopping or while they were slowing down to cross some bumps, and attacked them and attacked their companions and their families. And that was after she was used to waiting in the streets for visitors and passers-by to stop, feed and pet her.

Warnings and awareness campaigns

The official authorities have received many complaints and successive reports about the growth of this phenomenon, which has become a source of real concern for the residents of these areas. The authorities confirmed that they would take the necessary measures against the phenomenon of monkey robbery on homes and the like.

While specialists indicated that combating this phenomenon begins with knowing the causes of the spread and invasion in the beginning, which are in fact due, according to what studies have proven, to the destruction of the environments of these monkeys and their natural food sources, due to urban and agricultural expansion. In addition to the abundance of food through waste dumps, near their natural areas, which is one of the most important reasons for the increase in their numbers.

One of the reasons for its spread is also the feeding of people to them, which contributed significantly to increasing this shift in behavior among these monkeys, as well as increasing their number at times when their numbers were supposed to decrease, especially during the period of drought and food scarcity, and accordingly they began to enter the outskirts of cities and farms.

In this context, the National Center for the Development of Wildlife launched an awareness campaign not to throw food to baboons or to raise them in homes and adapt them to live in other than their natural environment.