Bees and bats left homeless by Bogor storm

Bees and bats left homeless by Bogor storm

BOGOR (JP): A storm here last Friday toppled some 40 trees in
the vast Bogor Botanical Gardens, leaving animal lovers worried
that large numbers of bees and bats would be left homeless.

Head of the scientific services section, which was jointly
set up by the botanical gardens and the National Institute of
Sciences (LIPI), Sugiarti, said on Tuesday that most of the
trees, which were aged between 50 and 150 years old, were fruit
trees, such as canari, nutmeg, citrus, sapodilla, and many other
tropical fruit-bearing trees like sirsak and jambu.

"Most of the trees were on average between 50 and 100 years
old. But the canari trees were 150 years old and stood 20 meters
high," she said.

According to her, the downing of the trees would also disturb
the existence of other elements in the ecosystem such as the
orchids and ferns which also used to live on the trees.

Sugiarti quoted data from researchers as saying that bees had
been migrating to the botanical gardens and the nearby Mt.
Halimun National Park (in Sukabumi, West Java) from Sumbawa (Nusa
Tenggara) and Sumatra.

"It's firmly believed that these bees, which produce the
popular Sumbawa honey, have had to migrate hundreds of kilometers
to reach the Bogor Botanical Gardens and the Mt. Halimun National
Park as they could no longer find mature or tall trees in their
original range," she said. (21/bsr)