When the Fruit are Ripe in Zambia

thebestofzambia.com

I am going to tell you about a very special place. The Mushita swamp forest, a remote and hidden section of Kansaka National Park in the heart of Zambia. What really makes it special is the event that occurs there every year in November and December.

The trees all bear fruit.

Maybe that doesn't sound all that amazing. After all, trees bear fruit everywhere. However, this fruiting is the only one that causes the largest gathering of mammals on the entire planet.

zambezi.com

Drawn by the presence of the fruit they crave, every year eight million straw colored fruit bats (Eidolon helvum) descend on this small piece of watery forest.

They fill the skies like a great black cloud, and when they finally land to rest their sheer numbers cause thick tree limbs to break off and fall to the forest floor.

Perhaps the greatest thing about this event is the mystery of its origins. Where do the bats come from? Where do they go when the fruit are all gone?

No one knows, and honestly, this makes me happy. In a world that is so often stripped of magic and mystery, its good to know there are still some unanswered riddles out there.

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