A NEW THRIVING BAT COLONY DISCOVERED
The recent draining of the main dam of the Mavrokolympos reservoir, after a leak appeared, revealed an enclave of around 1,000 Cyprus bats in a tunnel. The fruit bats (Rousettus aegyptiacus) are a protected species, and they eventually abandoned the tunnel whilst the fault was being repaired. Special detectors verified that no bats had been trapped in the tunnel. The same detectors have revealed that the bat colony has slowly returned now that the fault has been repaired.
The Mavrokolympos reservoir stores water diverted from the nearby Mavrokolympos River. It was constructed in 1966 to mainly serve banana plantations in and around the villages of Kissonerga and Peyia. It currently has a capacity of 2.18 million cubic metres of water
