Integrated management at Ramah

The Vervet Monkey (Cercopithecus pygerythus) is probably the biggest "pest" we have in the orchard. This monkey lives in family groups and they are generally territorial.


Of course they love pecans and can do considerable damage to the crop. They hide themselves incredibly well in the foliage of the trees and had become resident. Much to my frustration.
We noticed in about December that they were less evident in the orchard and finally only lived outside of the orchard itself.
We began to notice carcass remains of monkeys about and we were fairly mystified. Because sheep farming is no longer a regular focus of agriculture in the area, the population of jackal and caracal has increased.

Then we saw it. In broad daylight, and we have seen it now and again since. The sinister and beautiful Caracal (Felis caracal) or, "Rooikat" in Afrikaans.

This cat can be up to 17kg in weight, is aggressive and a fabulous hunter. It had taken to eating monkeys!!!!

Before the harvest we bring a flock of about 500 sheep into the orchard to clean up the grass around the sprinklers and trees that could not be cut. They keep the grass cover low until the first frost so that harvesting can be done more efficiently. Of course there are the other benefits of urea and dung applications.

We usually remove the sheep, irrigate the orchard for the last time to soak away the animal residue and wait for the time to harvest seriously.

This year we found that the caracal shifted it's diet and focus to the easier of the animals on the menu and started killing the sheep.

It grabs it by the throat, suffocates it and then will eat its fill. They can be quite random and kill more than one at a time. This sheep was killed shortly before the photo was taken and I think we disturbed the cat in the process of eating it. The blood from the neck puncture marks was still liquid.

The monkeys had moved back into the orchard and were starting the harvest on their terms.

The job had been done by the sheep, I took them away to the natural grazing (velt) and removed them from the menu.

This strategy has worked. A week after the sheep are out, the monkeys are gone.

Happy farmer, and more particularly - happy Caracal!!!!