Yesterday evening: Went to check out the 'Edward' mangos on the tree and found fewer hanging mangos than a couple of days before, and two of them had the bottom one third of them eaten off. Then, I followed my gaze to a fruited Papaya tree that's beside the 'Edward' mango tree, and there's a fruit-Rat on the fruited Papaya tree, with some small papaya fruit on it that had been clearly eaten at. I proceed to pick up a stone and throw it at the fruit-Rat that approximately 15 feet up in the canopy of the Papaya tree.
I thought I hit the fruit-Rat but instead, the stone bounces off the tree, dropping at my feet. I pick up the stone again and get ready for a second shot, but the fruit-Rat jumps off the 15 foot tall Papaya tree and lands on some 5 foot tall Ixora flower trees, and gets away. Needless to say, I was floored by this, a fruit-Rat that behaved like a Squirrel!
This has been happening every year, with the fruit-Rats going ONLY after the 'Edward' mangos. 'Edward' is regarded by some mango experts as arguably the best mango in Florida, the only problem being is that it appears to be a shy bearer. So, there are not enough 'Edward' mangos for me to share with the fruit-Rats (with impeccable taste).
I'm about to go off right now and remove all the remaining 'Edward' mangos from the tree. I normally don't mind sharing the fruit bounty with the wildlife. But, unfortunately, it looks like I have some kind of Caddyshack rodent war brewing here, with fancy fruit-Rats with impeccable mango fruit taste...