How the vulture flew over the cuckoo's nest

They are Sanral's birds of steel - the Oxpecker (N3), Bee-eater (N12) and the Kingfisher (N1) gantries that Gauteng's road users are going to pass through come next week.

Sanral has named each of its 49 gantries on the e-tolling network after endemic bird species, but omitting vultures and cuckoos from the list has caused a flap on social networks.

Comments have flocked in on globalbirdtrackers.org, a birding forum. In one, Wildtuinman remarked: "I thought that was very cool! I'll travel through Mossie (sparrow), Indlazi (speckled mousebird), Ivuzi (African darter), Flamingo, Owl and Pelican gantries to work and back home everyday."

On the same forum, another user, Veertjie, noted: "No vulture makes sense hey," to which he added a smiley face icon.

And in a tweet that was re-tweeted several times, @gussilber commented this week: "I see Sanral's gantries are named after birds, such as Pelican, Owl, Ibis and Loerie. They left out Vulture, Cuckoo and Dodo."

For the reasoning behind naming the gantries after bird species, Sanral decided to fly the coop.

Saturday Star

Posted at 08:18AM Apr 23, 2012 by Editor in Cities and Towns  |