In another sign that we’ve been messing with mother nature a bit too much roving bands of baboons in South Africa are encroaching on the homes of people who have encroached upon their habitat.  According to this piece at National Geographic (found via Boing Boing):

Conflicts between baboons and humans in the suburbs of prosperous Cape
Town have gotten so bad that monitoring teams have been deployed to keep
the animals away (South Africa map).
The large monkeys invade people’s homes in the coastal Table Mountain
region, sometimes confronting people who try to scare the baboons off.

Joan Laing is co-chair of the rival Welcome Glen Baboon-Free Neighbourhood Action Group. She says the animals are a menace…

"They break windows to get into houses," Laing said. "They even know
how to open doors. And once inside, they make a mess. They empty the
fridge, ruin furniture, and defecate all over."

And they’re not afraid of people, she says.

"I have had them in my house several times, even while I was
there. They simply brushed past me. I had to get out of the way," Laing
said. "Even my husband got threatened by a baboon."

Just makes you want to say "Holy crap!" doesn’t it?  And I don’t doubt for a minute that the beasts poop everywhere once they’re inside.  Celeste and I were in Belize a few years back and while on a jungle tour one of the guides warned this guy in another group that he was getting too close to the monkeys.  The guy ignored the guide and within seconds had a steaming piece of poop in his hair after a monkey flung it at him.  They look cute on video but they’re pretty nasty creatures up close.