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.
Cape Town Time
