KIMBERLEY – Residents of Kimberley was astonished by the discovery of Catfish breeding and swimming down Easton Avenue in Cassandra.
Two videos of the discovery went viral on local social media groups in the community.
Easton Avenue’s Catfish
A resident thanks Sol Plaatje Municipality for Easton Avenue’s Babers in one of the videos. “People it’s unbelievable that fish are breeding in our streets,” he concludes and continues to laugh in astonishment.
In a separate video, another man can be heard saying: “People, here is a tiny Baber swimming in Easton Avenue because the water has been flowing for over a year. Can you believe a Baber swimming down the street?”
If you think it’s a prank or the neighbour’s pet fish that escaped, think again.
Natural origins
It is totally plausible for the fish to have naturally arrived there, says Beryl Wilson, zoologist and conservation biologist, and Head of Zoology Department at the McGregor Museum.
“Adults are capable of moving across the land from wet spots to wet spot. They also can bury themselves deep in mud for years at a time and then come to the surface when the area is wet again. You will find many species that can do this and so it is not surprising when you visit a pan in an arid area like ours to find catfish and other shrimp-like creatures in abundance. Some species of frogs and fish are evenly spread between water bodies by the eggs that stick to the legs of visiting water birds and then get dispersed when the birds move around between pans, dams and rivers.”
