By Arvind Nair

Dr Abubacker (right) inspects the animal before taking it to the zoo. Inset: The baboon sitting in the bathroom. PICTURES: Nasar T K

AYMAN ABDULAZIZ and Ashraf Khallaf thought they had a free pet when they recently caught a baboon from an open area in Duhail.
Excited at the prospect of keeping a rare animal, the two Egyptians took the animal to their apartment in Umm Ghwalina. Not knowing what to do, they locked the baboon inside their bathroom and fed it fruits and vegetables.
Apparently, the animal had run away from a private zoo. But the baboon, listed in the Cites red list as an endangered species, turned out to be much more than what they had bargained for.
Unable to bear the grunts and howls from the bathroom even in the middle of the night, Ayman and Ashraf thought they had had enough.
Also, they had a strange visitor one day. They saw an expatriate scaling over the wall in an effort to snatch the baboon away. Before they could catch the intruder, he ran away.
This was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. They did not want any more trouble – not from the animal, nor from humans, not from the authorities.
They immediately called Doha zoo authorities and explained the situation.
A team, led by the zoo’s in-charge, Hamad Saleh al-Yazedi, and chief veterinarian, Dr Abubacker Hamouda, came to the apartment yesterday, equipped with all the necessary paraphernalia.
When the team opened the bathroom door, the baboon tried to jump out. But, since it was bound by a rope it could not escape.
Dr Abubacker decided against giving any anaesthesia to control the animal. He brought a trap cage close to the bathroom door. Two zoo keepers entered the bathroom and managed to entice the animal into the cage.
Yazedi later said the two-year-old animal would be subjected to a host of medical examinations before being accommodated at the zoo. He insisted that the baboon would not be returned to the owner even if he came claiming for it.
He said such monkeys were rare in the region except in the mountainous regions of Saudi and Yemen.
Qatar is a party to Cites (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora), which is an international agreement between governments. Its aim is to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival.
Dealing in Cites-listed animals, keeping them as pets or trading in them, is a crime and is punishable.
Baboon is considered an endangered animal, or whose survival is under threat.