South African baboons competing with harvesters for the best wine grapes

Baboon by Arno & Louise (CC)

Humans aren't the only beings on the planet who like to imbibe on a bit of the grape. Baboons show signs of inebriation after they indulge.

It’s wine grape harvest time in South Africa and marauding guests are defying electrified fences and going after their favorite wine grapes, which also happen to be the most expensive.

This isn’t the first time baboons have raided South Africa’s vineyards, but it appears to be the worst year for baboon vandalism and thievery, because their usual foraging places have been lost to wildfires and never-ending expansion by farmers enlarging their grape growing areas.

Baboons by the hundreds, lured by the aroma of pinot noir and chardonnay grapes, are undeterred by electrified fences, noisemakers, air horns and rubber snakes used by farmers to keep them away from their prized wine crops.

Mark Dendy-Young, farm manager of La Petite Ferme in the Franschhoek Valley, said he had lost up to 40 percent of his harvest last month to the baboons, according to South Africa's News24.com.

The vineyards of ripe, succulent grapes are an "absolute bonanza," for the baboons, Justin O'Riain of the University of Cape Town told AP.

O’Riain, who works in the university’s baboon research unit, said the grapes drive the primates to distraction. "As far as baboons are concerned, the combination of starch and sugar is very attractive — and that's your basic grape."

Wine grape growers say the primates are partial to sweet pinot noir grapes, the most expensive of the lot.

"They choose the nicest bunches, and you will see the ones they leave on the ground. If you taste them, they are sour," said Francois van Vuuren, farm manager at La Terra de Luc vineyards, 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of Cape Town. "They eat the sweetest ones and leave the rest."

This year it’s expected that out of a 12-ton harvest, between 1,100 and 1,300 pounds of grapes at La Terra de Luc will be eaten by the baboons.

It isn’t just the wine on the vine that attracts the pesky primates. They also feast on the grape skins that have fermented in the sun.

A baboon on a grape skin high is reportedly an event to be seen, as they get an alcohol kick after gorging on the skins, stagger and stumble around just like Uncle Charlie after he’s had too many Super Bowl beers, before they peacefully fall asleep, only to forage again the next day.