Thursday, May 12, 2011

Driving you batty

As you sweep up Edinburgh Drive towards Wynberg Hill, you pass these magnificent old yellowwood trees, one of our indigenous hardwoods, but notice that some are really small and puny while others are huge and old. Did they die and get replaced? Apparently not. Local residents complained that Egyptian Fruit Bats were roosting in their houses and messing on their walls. These fruit bats really like the fruits of the female yellowwood trees and the huge old trees along Edinburgh Drive were sustaining a large population of these bats so the City Council (this was about thirty or so years ago I guess) decided to cut down all the female, fruit-bearing yellowwood trees and plant male trees in their place.
Now the bats are no longer a problem.

4 comments:

  1. Hi Caroline
    I came across your blog by chance searching for some info on Cape Town. It's a wonderful collection of photos and facts on one of my favourite places in the world :-)

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  2. Pity to lose the fruiting trees

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  3. There are plenty of trees for the bats on Table Mountain close by. And yes - it was a pity to lose the trees, but better than spraying the bats - at least they could relocate.

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