Bats are not universally loved, but the cave bats living in Barren Spot on St. Croix have some definite friends at the St. Croix Environmental Association.
In 1999, Nestor Correa gave the SEA a small plot of land at 299-A Estate Barren Spot. The property has a well and a Danish-era stone water tower that once supported a windmill used to pump water from the well for either irrigation or watering livestock, or both. Now the tower serves as a habitat for the cave bat, Brachyphylla cavernarum.
The inside walls are covered with the creatures. The bats stir around inside when visitors come to take a look during the day, but they don’t come outside in the daylight. The visitor who dares stick her head inside will get a close up look at the habitat.
SEA, in a project spearheaded by Ken Haines and funded by his wife Chris, are making it possible for more people to get a close look at the bat habitat. SEA fenced in the property about a year after receiving it, but did not maintain public access. SEA also installed iron grillwork over the two stone arches on opposite sides of the tower to prevent access to the interior by humans.
Tan-tan trees invaded the area first, but are now dying out due to shading by taller trees, primarily white manjack and acacia. The top of the tower is covered by the canopy of these trees.
The tower literally disappeared from public view. But this October, it started to see sunshine again. SEA received a permit from the Department of Natural Resources to clear a 30-foot by 172-foot easement across a neighboring plot belonging to Frederick Warden. By the end of November the easement had been cleared, using a rented backhoe. The organization installed a 12-foot wide gate and added a chain barrier where the easement joins the public road to prevent litterers from discarding trash on the easement.
The tower will one day be opened for tours conducted by SEA, but there is still one more step to go.
Boy Scout Daryl Donohue Jr. has chosen clearing the vegetation around the tower and removing the strangler fig that has taken root on the tower, threatening to cause it to fall apart, as his Eagle Scout service project.
With advice from Renata Platenburg, a bat specialist from the University of Virgin Islands, Donohue will confirm the identity of the bat species in the tower and estimate the size of the population. He will also suggest some language for signs that will be erected at the bat tower as a permanent display for future visits by SEA members and the public.
Further information is available by calling the SEA at 1-340-773-1989.
