A colony of fruit bats whose habitat is threatened by a road project is to get a new home.
Dog-faced fruit bats have been living on a small clump of 10-metre high fan-palm trees near a roundabout between Mei Lam Estate and Tai Po Road in Tai Wai for the past five years.
Construction of a trunk road will start late next year, so the Territory Development Department has planted 50 fan-palm trees near the roundabout in the hope that the bats will move there. By last week the trees had grown up to seven metres tall, but the leaves were still too thin to house the bats - three males and 10 females.
The department's landscape architect, Chong Sing-lai, said he hoped the trees would grow to the required size by the start of construction work. 'We planned mitigation two years ago and wish to preserve the bats' homes by transplanting some of the existing trees and planting new ones nearby.'
He said that the old fan-palm trees would be up-rooted six months before road construction started and relocated to three spots nearby.
Three Celtic Chinese fruit trees have also been planted in the area to lure the bats.